By Lebowitz & Mzhen
In a recent news that our Baltimore, Maryland Attorneys have been following, doctors are reportedly increasingly leaving behind paper when prescribing medications, and depending more and more on electronic prescriptions, or “e-prescriptions”—in an effort to avoid pharmacy misfills and medication errors, along with hard-to-read doctor handwriting, or even prescription fraud, as our attorneys reported on in our last blog.
E-prescribing immediately sends the prescriptions to the pharmacy in a digital format through a secured Internet network, from a handheld device or from their computers. The doctor simply selects the drug from a computerized list, with other symbols indicating the best drug option, different dosages, and either generic or name-brand medicine, instead of hand-writing the prescription, which can lead to medication error. Some e-prescribing programs give symbols in the form of colored or smiling faces, delineating between cheapest, preferred, or less desirable drug options.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the number of e-prescriptions almost tripled last year, from 68 million in the previous year, to 191 million in 2009. Surescripts, LLC, the company that handles the majority of the electronic communications in e-prescribing, reports that this represents 12% of the 1.63 billion original prescriptions, which excludes refills. The first three months of this year showed that one out of every five prescriptions is being filed electronically—a number that is rapidly growing, as nearly 25% of doctors based in offices already have the technology to e-prescribe.
In a study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine in February of this year, e-prescribing was found to reduce common hand-written prescriptions errors significantly, including pharmacy misfills containing the wrong dosage, or incorrect usage instructions that could lead to patient injury or even wrongful death.
The study, “Electronic Prescribing Improves Medication Safety In Community-Based Office Practices, showed that when practices started using e-prescribing for a year, they reduced their error rate from 42.5% to 6.6% on average. Medical practices with doctors who continued to hand write prescriptions on paper, rose from a 38% error rate to 39%.
E-prescribing can also contribute to prescription errors, for instance, if a doctor mistakenly presses the wrong key, or chooses the wrong form of the drug, like a pill form instead of liquid form for children. The Institute for Safe Medication Practices focuses on analyzing and reducing medication errors, and although they support electronic prescribing, they recommend that patients always ask for verbal clarification and guidance from their doctors, as well as printed out instructions before taking the medication, to avoid medication mistakes or personal injury.
At Lebowitz and Mzhen LLC, our attorneys strive to make sure that pharmacy misfill victims and their loved ones receive the personal injury compensation they deserve. Call us today at 1-800-654-1949.
More Doctors Are Prescribing Medicines Online, The Wall Street Journal, April 20, 1010
Above article publish on http://www.eprescriptionservices.com/study-shows-eprescribing-significantly-reduces-prescription-errors/
Monday, May 17, 2010
EMRs Top Priority For 58% Of Hospital CIOs
By Marianne Kolbasuk McGee
CIOs rank electronic medical records projects higher than IT managers and directors, who are focused on PC refreshes.
With $20 billion-plus worth of meaningful use bonuses from the government at stake for their organizations, E-medical records and electronic ordering systems are the top IT priorities for hospital CIOs over the next two years, according to a survey.
However, among hospital IT managers and directors, EMR projects ranked further down on the IT priority list, with only 25% naming those initiatives as “most important” for their organization over the next two years.
The survey of 178 respondents, including 36 CIOs and 142 IT directors and managers at hospitals with 200 or more beds, was commissioned by HP and conducted earlier this year by research firm NewGrowth Consulting.
The survey was designed to ask about hospital IT leaders’ IT priorities and plans, especially those initiatives involving PCs.
Among CIOs surveyed, 58% named EMR systems as their most important IT project over the next 24 months, while computerized physician order entry came in at a close second, named by 56%.
Respondents could choose more than one answer.
The CIO results are in synch with the biggest theme in healthcare IT today — the federal government’s push for hospitals and doctor practices to implement EMR, CPOE, and other e-health systems over the next several years.
Under the HITECH portion of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act signed into law in February 2009, the federal government plans to begin in 2011 rewarding healthcare providers with more than $20 billion over the next several years for their meaningful use of health IT systems such as EMR and CPOE.
Coming in third among top IT priorities of hospital CIOs was security initiatives, named by 47% of respondents, followed by database initiatives, with 42%. Other IT projects on the CIO priority list include bar-coded medication administration (36%); hospital expansion (33%); PC refresh (31%); and thin client/PC virtualization (31%).
However, further down the hospital IT leadership totem pole, IT management priorities — where PCs were involved — differed somewhat from those of CIOs.
Hospital IT managers and directors named PC refresh (51%); security initiatives (42%); and CPOE (37%) as their top IT projects for the next 24 months. That was followed by hospital expansion (34%); BCMA (33%); and database initiatives (30%).
Among hospital IT managers and directors surveyed, EMR ranked 7th, being named by 25% of the respondents. The survey also found that nearly two-thirds of hospital CIOs planned PC virtualization for some of their client hardware.
Also, nearly six in 10 hospital CIOs said their organizations did not have a telemedicine program, while 41% said their hospitals did have such initiatives underway. Most CIOs with telemedicine programs plan to expand those efforts in the next 24 months.
Above article publish on http://www.emrspecialists.com/2010/05/emrs-top-priority-58-hospital-cios/
CIOs rank electronic medical records projects higher than IT managers and directors, who are focused on PC refreshes.
With $20 billion-plus worth of meaningful use bonuses from the government at stake for their organizations, E-medical records and electronic ordering systems are the top IT priorities for hospital CIOs over the next two years, according to a survey.
However, among hospital IT managers and directors, EMR projects ranked further down on the IT priority list, with only 25% naming those initiatives as “most important” for their organization over the next two years.
The survey of 178 respondents, including 36 CIOs and 142 IT directors and managers at hospitals with 200 or more beds, was commissioned by HP and conducted earlier this year by research firm NewGrowth Consulting.
The survey was designed to ask about hospital IT leaders’ IT priorities and plans, especially those initiatives involving PCs.
Among CIOs surveyed, 58% named EMR systems as their most important IT project over the next 24 months, while computerized physician order entry came in at a close second, named by 56%.
Respondents could choose more than one answer.
The CIO results are in synch with the biggest theme in healthcare IT today — the federal government’s push for hospitals and doctor practices to implement EMR, CPOE, and other e-health systems over the next several years.
Under the HITECH portion of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act signed into law in February 2009, the federal government plans to begin in 2011 rewarding healthcare providers with more than $20 billion over the next several years for their meaningful use of health IT systems such as EMR and CPOE.
Coming in third among top IT priorities of hospital CIOs was security initiatives, named by 47% of respondents, followed by database initiatives, with 42%. Other IT projects on the CIO priority list include bar-coded medication administration (36%); hospital expansion (33%); PC refresh (31%); and thin client/PC virtualization (31%).
However, further down the hospital IT leadership totem pole, IT management priorities — where PCs were involved — differed somewhat from those of CIOs.
Hospital IT managers and directors named PC refresh (51%); security initiatives (42%); and CPOE (37%) as their top IT projects for the next 24 months. That was followed by hospital expansion (34%); BCMA (33%); and database initiatives (30%).
Among hospital IT managers and directors surveyed, EMR ranked 7th, being named by 25% of the respondents. The survey also found that nearly two-thirds of hospital CIOs planned PC virtualization for some of their client hardware.
Also, nearly six in 10 hospital CIOs said their organizations did not have a telemedicine program, while 41% said their hospitals did have such initiatives underway. Most CIOs with telemedicine programs plan to expand those efforts in the next 24 months.
Above article publish on http://www.emrspecialists.com/2010/05/emrs-top-priority-58-hospital-cios/
Thursday, May 13, 2010
CMS announces $9 million in funding for Medicaid IT
By Joseph Conn
The CMS has announced the awarding of a total of just over $9 million in matching funds to be used by four states to plan for their Medicaid programs to subsidize provider purchases and the use of electronic health-record systems under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, also known as the stimulus law.
The states and their grant amounts are: New Jersey, $4.93 million; Louisiana, $1.85 million; Maryland, $1.37 million; and Minnesota, $1.04 million.
Since November 2009, 39 states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands have shared nearly $67.6 million in planning grants, according to news release information on the CMS website.
The stimulus law provides a 90% federal match to cover the cost of state planning efforts for the Medicaid EHR subsidy programs. According to federal estimates, the government estimates it could spend as much as $27.3 billion on the EHR subsidies under Medicaid, Medicare and Medicare Advantage programs.
Above article publish on http://www.myemrstimulus.com/cms-announces-9-million-funding-medicaid/
The CMS has announced the awarding of a total of just over $9 million in matching funds to be used by four states to plan for their Medicaid programs to subsidize provider purchases and the use of electronic health-record systems under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, also known as the stimulus law.
The states and their grant amounts are: New Jersey, $4.93 million; Louisiana, $1.85 million; Maryland, $1.37 million; and Minnesota, $1.04 million.
Since November 2009, 39 states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands have shared nearly $67.6 million in planning grants, according to news release information on the CMS website.
The stimulus law provides a 90% federal match to cover the cost of state planning efforts for the Medicaid EHR subsidy programs. According to federal estimates, the government estimates it could spend as much as $27.3 billion on the EHR subsidies under Medicaid, Medicare and Medicare Advantage programs.
Above article publish on http://www.myemrstimulus.com/cms-announces-9-million-funding-medicaid/
Obama launches national campaign to sell health reform, health IT
By Chelsey Ledue
WASHINGTON – After signing the healthcare reform bill into law on March 23, President Barack Obama traveled to Iowa and Maine to promote his vision, which includes the role of healthcare IT in saving lives and cutting cost.
Obama visited Iowa City, Iowa on March 25 and Portland, Maine on April 1.
At the Maine rally, Obama said passage of the healthcare reform law is a reminder that the country has the power to shape its own destiny.
“It has reminded us that we, as a people, do not shrink from a challenge,” he said. “We overcome it.”
Obama has had a history of supporting healthcare IT advancement, which includes a call for every American to have an electronic health record by 2014. The president requested $110 million in his budget this year, to strengthen healthcare IT policy coordination and research activities.
Last year, the administration backed more than $20 billion over 10 years to advance healthcare IT adoption in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).
At the president’s rally in Portland, Maine Gov. John Baldacci touted healthcare IT as the means for improving quality of care, noting that Maine has been an early leader in the adoption of medical technology.
Information technology “plays a huge role” in medical reform, Baldacci told Healthcare IT News. “A huge role. It’s going to be through medical information technology that you’re going to enhance the ability of the providers to give quality care but also do it in a way that will reduce costs. It’s a critical element that needs to be part of this.”
David Howes, a physician and CEO of Portland, Maine-based Martin’s Point Health Care, said the reform law is “an enormous step forward.”
“The bill builds support for primary care and EHRs,” Howes said. “It contains flexibility and support for new models of care and Medicare quality and effectiveness measures. It is an enormous step forward for the American people and businesses.”
“I think it’s an opportunity for the president to help market the good parts of the bill,” said Gordon H. Smith, executive vice president of the Maine Medical Association, prior to the president’s visit. “I think it’s a battle for the hearts and minds of the public.”
Above article publish on http://www.ehrexperts.us/obama-launches-national-campaign-to-sell-health-reform-health-it/
WASHINGTON – After signing the healthcare reform bill into law on March 23, President Barack Obama traveled to Iowa and Maine to promote his vision, which includes the role of healthcare IT in saving lives and cutting cost.
Obama visited Iowa City, Iowa on March 25 and Portland, Maine on April 1.
At the Maine rally, Obama said passage of the healthcare reform law is a reminder that the country has the power to shape its own destiny.
“It has reminded us that we, as a people, do not shrink from a challenge,” he said. “We overcome it.”
Obama has had a history of supporting healthcare IT advancement, which includes a call for every American to have an electronic health record by 2014. The president requested $110 million in his budget this year, to strengthen healthcare IT policy coordination and research activities.
Last year, the administration backed more than $20 billion over 10 years to advance healthcare IT adoption in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).
At the president’s rally in Portland, Maine Gov. John Baldacci touted healthcare IT as the means for improving quality of care, noting that Maine has been an early leader in the adoption of medical technology.
Information technology “plays a huge role” in medical reform, Baldacci told Healthcare IT News. “A huge role. It’s going to be through medical information technology that you’re going to enhance the ability of the providers to give quality care but also do it in a way that will reduce costs. It’s a critical element that needs to be part of this.”
David Howes, a physician and CEO of Portland, Maine-based Martin’s Point Health Care, said the reform law is “an enormous step forward.”
“The bill builds support for primary care and EHRs,” Howes said. “It contains flexibility and support for new models of care and Medicare quality and effectiveness measures. It is an enormous step forward for the American people and businesses.”
“I think it’s an opportunity for the president to help market the good parts of the bill,” said Gordon H. Smith, executive vice president of the Maine Medical Association, prior to the president’s visit. “I think it’s a battle for the hearts and minds of the public.”
Above article publish on http://www.ehrexperts.us/obama-launches-national-campaign-to-sell-health-reform-health-it/
Monday, May 10, 2010
Covering Electronic Health Records
By Neil Versel
Electronic health records (EHRs) have been around in one form or another since the 1960s, but the notion of patient records being stored on computers is only beginning to seep into the public’s consciousness. While pretty much every other industry computerized years ago, the vast majority of Americans’ medical records remain on paper.
The goal of electronic health records (and health information technology in general) is to make health care safer and more efficient by providing health professionals and patients alike with information to inform decision-making, promote preventive care and reduce duplication.
It sounds simple enough, but health IT is a complex, frequently misunderstood topic. In this essay, I’ll provide some background on electronic health records and health information technology, a glossary of terms, and some story ideas, with the goal of helping you better cover this important health and business topic.
Ditching paper charts is not easy, nor is writing about the conversion. The central story is not the technology itself, but rather how health information technology will transform care. “It’s really a matter of change management rather than technology,” Dr. David Blumenthal, the Obama administration’s national coordinator for health IT, explained in November 2009.
Online health records for all – “in 10 years”
First, some background: in 2004, President George W. Bush called for “most Americans” to have electronic health records within 10 years and created the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology within the Department of Health and Human Services to help make it happen. One early project of the office was the attempted conversion of VistA, the EHR long in place at the Department of Veterans Affairs, for use in small medical practices. The EHR, which was difficult to install in most doctors’ offices, never made it past a beta version before federal officials dropped the project.
Health IT subsequently drifted in and out of the national spotlight over the next several years, but didn’t garner much coverage in the mainstream press unless there was a local angle, such as a hospital installing a system. As a longtime reporter on this beat, it has been a challenge to “sell” this story outside the trade press. But now that health information technology is a major story, with plenty of interesting national and local angles, I’ve noticed more reporters scrambling to grasp this difficult subject.
So what’s finally turning arcane health information technology into a mainstream news story? Two things: National health reform and the federal stimulus bill.
Health Reform: Can Better Health IT Lower Costs and Improve Care?
Now that health insurance reform legislation[NV1] has passed, I hope mainstream media will turn their attention to a major health information technology story: greater access to health care does not guarantee good care, so it won’t matter much whether government or private companies administer health plans for millions of new enrollees as long as fee-for-service remains the dominant payment model.
The perverse reality is that mistakes can be good for business. Medical errors and other complications lead to more hospitalizations and longer stays. Both the fear of being sued and the inability to access previous results cause doctors to order extra tests, without regard to medical prudence.
Health IT can help prevent errors by offering what’s known as clinical decision support — computerized alerts recommending best practices and warning against harmful actions, such as prescribing a medication to which a patient is allergic. EHRs, if properly connected to laboratory systems, make test results more readily available so there is less need to re-order procedures. A good EHR should keep a record of every instruction a doctor gives to a patient so there is no question what was or was not communicated, in case of a malpractice claim.
From the perspective of a health IT reporter, health reform started not with the bills President Obama signed in March 2010, but more than a year earlier with the passage of the $787 billion stimulus bill, also known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The 2009 legislation contains an estimated $25.8 billion for health IT, mostly in the form of incentives [NV2] for doctors and hospitals to adopt electronic health records. Those that have not ditched their paper charts by 2015 face lower Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements.
Insurers and employers that provide health benefits tend to reap the greatest financial rewards from EHRs, so there has been little incentive for the actual providers of health care – physicians and hospitals – to invest in technology. The stimulus is supposed to change the paradigm by rewarding providers that demonstrate “meaningful use” of EHRs beginning in October 2010 for hospitals and January 2011 for physician practices.
According to rules proposed at the end of 2009, EHRs should provide clinical decision support, doctors and nurses should enter orders electronically, patients should be able to get a copy of their medical records on demand and users should be able to share data between facilities and organizations. The requirements will get tougher in 2013 and again in 2015; providers eventually will have to prove that they follow nationally recognized standards of practice.
As electronic health records – and subsets of them like personal health records – become more of a hot topic for mainstream media, it’s important to learn the lingo and get your facts straight.
Know your acronyms: a cautionary tale
Here’s what can happen if you don’t: On Dec. 2, 2009, a website called eSecurity Planet published a story about a privacy watchdog organization publishing a pre-emptive strike against personal health records, a subset of EHRs that has virtually zero market traction to date.
The eSecurity Planet story confused consumer-oriented personal health records for “electronic medical records” and wrongly reported that the stimulus is paying for billions in “electronic personal health records (PHRs).” The stimulus is supporting EHRs, a much broader category. Additionally, the story, like far too many others I’ve read, referred to the much-hyped Google Health and Microsoft HealthVault platforms as market leaders. They are nothing more than early-stage products from big names in the consumer arena, not established health IT powerhouses.
Look past the hype, learn the terminology and talk to people on the front lines. Go to the chief information officer and nursing shift managers of a local hospital. Physicians in private practice should have plenty to say as well.
This subject is often tough to grasp, so don’t be afraid to ask seemingly simple questions. I’ve been covering health IT since 2001, and I still frequently need detailed explanations.
Story ideas for your community
As implementation of national health insurance reform begins and EHR money starts flowing from the stimulus bill, I hope you’ll consider these story ideas for your community.
1. Who owns your EHR[NV3] ? Should you be concerned about it being used as a source of information for pharmaceutical researchers or medical marketers?
2. What is your local hospital or large medical group doing to get stimulus money for EHR development? What differences might patients see as a result?
3. How will the physician office visit change as a result of computerization? Will patients be asked to complete medical history forms online rather than filling out the ubiquitous clipboard each time they go to the doctor? Will nurses and physician assistants be able to provide services once the exclusive domain of physicians because if they have access to more complete patient information?
4. How might patients get better preventive care if medical practices are able to generate, with the help of EHRs, automatic reminders for recommended screening based on age, gender and health risk factors?
Above article publish on http://www.ehrexperts.us/covering-electronic-health-records/
Electronic health records (EHRs) have been around in one form or another since the 1960s, but the notion of patient records being stored on computers is only beginning to seep into the public’s consciousness. While pretty much every other industry computerized years ago, the vast majority of Americans’ medical records remain on paper.
The goal of electronic health records (and health information technology in general) is to make health care safer and more efficient by providing health professionals and patients alike with information to inform decision-making, promote preventive care and reduce duplication.
It sounds simple enough, but health IT is a complex, frequently misunderstood topic. In this essay, I’ll provide some background on electronic health records and health information technology, a glossary of terms, and some story ideas, with the goal of helping you better cover this important health and business topic.
Ditching paper charts is not easy, nor is writing about the conversion. The central story is not the technology itself, but rather how health information technology will transform care. “It’s really a matter of change management rather than technology,” Dr. David Blumenthal, the Obama administration’s national coordinator for health IT, explained in November 2009.
Online health records for all – “in 10 years”
First, some background: in 2004, President George W. Bush called for “most Americans” to have electronic health records within 10 years and created the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology within the Department of Health and Human Services to help make it happen. One early project of the office was the attempted conversion of VistA, the EHR long in place at the Department of Veterans Affairs, for use in small medical practices. The EHR, which was difficult to install in most doctors’ offices, never made it past a beta version before federal officials dropped the project.
Health IT subsequently drifted in and out of the national spotlight over the next several years, but didn’t garner much coverage in the mainstream press unless there was a local angle, such as a hospital installing a system. As a longtime reporter on this beat, it has been a challenge to “sell” this story outside the trade press. But now that health information technology is a major story, with plenty of interesting national and local angles, I’ve noticed more reporters scrambling to grasp this difficult subject.
So what’s finally turning arcane health information technology into a mainstream news story? Two things: National health reform and the federal stimulus bill.
Health Reform: Can Better Health IT Lower Costs and Improve Care?
Now that health insurance reform legislation[NV1] has passed, I hope mainstream media will turn their attention to a major health information technology story: greater access to health care does not guarantee good care, so it won’t matter much whether government or private companies administer health plans for millions of new enrollees as long as fee-for-service remains the dominant payment model.
The perverse reality is that mistakes can be good for business. Medical errors and other complications lead to more hospitalizations and longer stays. Both the fear of being sued and the inability to access previous results cause doctors to order extra tests, without regard to medical prudence.
Health IT can help prevent errors by offering what’s known as clinical decision support — computerized alerts recommending best practices and warning against harmful actions, such as prescribing a medication to which a patient is allergic. EHRs, if properly connected to laboratory systems, make test results more readily available so there is less need to re-order procedures. A good EHR should keep a record of every instruction a doctor gives to a patient so there is no question what was or was not communicated, in case of a malpractice claim.
From the perspective of a health IT reporter, health reform started not with the bills President Obama signed in March 2010, but more than a year earlier with the passage of the $787 billion stimulus bill, also known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The 2009 legislation contains an estimated $25.8 billion for health IT, mostly in the form of incentives [NV2] for doctors and hospitals to adopt electronic health records. Those that have not ditched their paper charts by 2015 face lower Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements.
Insurers and employers that provide health benefits tend to reap the greatest financial rewards from EHRs, so there has been little incentive for the actual providers of health care – physicians and hospitals – to invest in technology. The stimulus is supposed to change the paradigm by rewarding providers that demonstrate “meaningful use” of EHRs beginning in October 2010 for hospitals and January 2011 for physician practices.
According to rules proposed at the end of 2009, EHRs should provide clinical decision support, doctors and nurses should enter orders electronically, patients should be able to get a copy of their medical records on demand and users should be able to share data between facilities and organizations. The requirements will get tougher in 2013 and again in 2015; providers eventually will have to prove that they follow nationally recognized standards of practice.
As electronic health records – and subsets of them like personal health records – become more of a hot topic for mainstream media, it’s important to learn the lingo and get your facts straight.
Know your acronyms: a cautionary tale
Here’s what can happen if you don’t: On Dec. 2, 2009, a website called eSecurity Planet published a story about a privacy watchdog organization publishing a pre-emptive strike against personal health records, a subset of EHRs that has virtually zero market traction to date.
The eSecurity Planet story confused consumer-oriented personal health records for “electronic medical records” and wrongly reported that the stimulus is paying for billions in “electronic personal health records (PHRs).” The stimulus is supporting EHRs, a much broader category. Additionally, the story, like far too many others I’ve read, referred to the much-hyped Google Health and Microsoft HealthVault platforms as market leaders. They are nothing more than early-stage products from big names in the consumer arena, not established health IT powerhouses.
Look past the hype, learn the terminology and talk to people on the front lines. Go to the chief information officer and nursing shift managers of a local hospital. Physicians in private practice should have plenty to say as well.
This subject is often tough to grasp, so don’t be afraid to ask seemingly simple questions. I’ve been covering health IT since 2001, and I still frequently need detailed explanations.
Story ideas for your community
As implementation of national health insurance reform begins and EHR money starts flowing from the stimulus bill, I hope you’ll consider these story ideas for your community.
1. Who owns your EHR[NV3] ? Should you be concerned about it being used as a source of information for pharmaceutical researchers or medical marketers?
2. What is your local hospital or large medical group doing to get stimulus money for EHR development? What differences might patients see as a result?
3. How will the physician office visit change as a result of computerization? Will patients be asked to complete medical history forms online rather than filling out the ubiquitous clipboard each time they go to the doctor? Will nurses and physician assistants be able to provide services once the exclusive domain of physicians because if they have access to more complete patient information?
4. How might patients get better preventive care if medical practices are able to generate, with the help of EHRs, automatic reminders for recommended screening based on age, gender and health risk factors?
Above article publish on http://www.ehrexperts.us/covering-electronic-health-records/
EMR Implementation in Small and Large Clinics
I always love to hear clinics talk about the challenges they face in implementing an EMR. For the most part, they are completely predictable. Especially when it comes to the small versus large clinic challenges.
For example, small clinics will complain that they don’t have the resources that large clinics have to implement an EMR. Large clinics will complain that they have too much bureaucracy, red tape and stakeholders that they have to get on board an EMR implementation. They wish they were like smaller clinics who could quickly make decisions and had a much more focused need.
Of course, the reality is that both of these point of views are accurate. It’s not news that small clinics can make decisions easier and that larger clinics have more resources at their disposal. Certainly a generalization, but the reason it’s a generalization is because it’s generally true.
Since both small clinics and large clinics both face major challenges of resources and red tape respectively, then how does any clinic get over them and implement an EMR? Let’s be honest, it’s really more a matter of the priority EMR is given than anything else. So far many doctors offices haven’t decided to make their EMR implementation a priority. Once a clinic makes EMR a priority, it’s really quite amazing to see what happens.
The good news is that for many clinics, the EMR stimulus money has changed this fact and bumped EMR adoption up on their priority list. Plus, in the 4+ years I’ve been writing about EMR software, EMR software has come a really long way. Sure, they still have a ways to go, but the EMR software of today is much improved and can provide some real value to a clinic if implemented correctly.
It’s time to address the excuses for why you can’t do an EMR and start focusing on the benefits you can receive from an EMR. Notice I didn’t say “ignore” or “hide” the excuses. We need to address the excuses people are giving and see what benefits you might be missing because you’re not using an EMR. I know very very few people who use an EMR and would ever want to go back to paper. There’s a reason for this.
Above article publish on http://www.emrspecialists.com/2010/05/emr-implementation-small-large-clinics/
For example, small clinics will complain that they don’t have the resources that large clinics have to implement an EMR. Large clinics will complain that they have too much bureaucracy, red tape and stakeholders that they have to get on board an EMR implementation. They wish they were like smaller clinics who could quickly make decisions and had a much more focused need.
Of course, the reality is that both of these point of views are accurate. It’s not news that small clinics can make decisions easier and that larger clinics have more resources at their disposal. Certainly a generalization, but the reason it’s a generalization is because it’s generally true.
Since both small clinics and large clinics both face major challenges of resources and red tape respectively, then how does any clinic get over them and implement an EMR? Let’s be honest, it’s really more a matter of the priority EMR is given than anything else. So far many doctors offices haven’t decided to make their EMR implementation a priority. Once a clinic makes EMR a priority, it’s really quite amazing to see what happens.
The good news is that for many clinics, the EMR stimulus money has changed this fact and bumped EMR adoption up on their priority list. Plus, in the 4+ years I’ve been writing about EMR software, EMR software has come a really long way. Sure, they still have a ways to go, but the EMR software of today is much improved and can provide some real value to a clinic if implemented correctly.
It’s time to address the excuses for why you can’t do an EMR and start focusing on the benefits you can receive from an EMR. Notice I didn’t say “ignore” or “hide” the excuses. We need to address the excuses people are giving and see what benefits you might be missing because you’re not using an EMR. I know very very few people who use an EMR and would ever want to go back to paper. There’s a reason for this.
Above article publish on http://www.emrspecialists.com/2010/05/emr-implementation-small-large-clinics/
Friday, May 7, 2010
E-prescribing growing, but most practices still don’t use it
By Pamela Lewis Dolan,
A new report finds a significant uptick in the number of physicians who prescribe electronically. But the e-prescribers still only account for about one in four physicians, or 26% of office-based doctors.
The numbers come from Surescripts, which operates the nation’s largest e-prescribing network. It released its annual e-prescribing progress report on March 2. The report found that although there was significant progress in adoption of electronic prescribing, there are still barriers to overcome.
The report found that the percentage of eligible prescriptions sent electronically increased from 6% to 18% from the end of 2008 to the end of 2009, as measured by tracking traffic through the Surescripts network. The 2009 total represented 190 million out of about 1.6 billion eligible prescriptions for an overall annual rate of 12%, according to the report, “Advancing Healthcare in America.”
“For e-prescription use to jump from 6% to 18% in one year indicates several things,” said Harry Totonis, president and CEO of Surescripts, in a prepared statement. “First, that the federal government’s leadership and incentive structures are working. Second, that the benefits of e-prescribing — including increased safety, lower costs and increased efficiency — are widely understood. And last, that the nation’s experience with e-prescribing — in building the network and the ecosystem to support it — provides a definitive road map for how to drive adoption of a broader electronic health record for all Americans.”
The Surescripts report found that about 70% of physicians who do e-prescribe use an application on their EMRs. Company spokesman Rob Cronin said many EMRs might not have been certified in 2009 for e-prescribing under the rules that qualify physicians for incentives. Many of those systems are now becoming certified, and that accounted for a large chunk of the e-prescribing growth.
On the subject of electronic prescribing’s safety benefits, in February Weill Cornell Medical College in New York released the results of its study comparing the safety of e-prescribing with paper-based prescribing.
The authors found that nearly two of every five paper prescriptions contained an error. The authors reviewed 3,684 paper-based prescriptions at the start of the study, and 3,848 paper-based and electronic prescriptions written one year later. It found that after a year, the percentage of errors dropped from 43% to 7% for physicians and other prescribers using the electronic system.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services e-prescribing incentives, which started in January 2009, also were a motivator for adoption of electronic prescribing, according to Surescripts. And the incentives that will be made available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to stimulate EMR growth are expected to motivate even more to adopt e-prescribing, experts said. E-prescribing is one criteria that must be met to qualify for EMR incentive money.
Also cited as drivers of e-prescribing adoption were numerous public and private efforts, including the American Medical Association’s June 2009 introduction of its Zero-In Rx e-prescribing learning center.
But some experts wonder if e-prescribing adoption rates would be higher if it weren’t for a Drug Enforcement Administration rule that requires all controlled substance prescriptions be written on paper.
David Hunt, MD, officer of provider adoption support for the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, told a crowd of physicians and others gathered in March for the annual meeting of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society that he himself doesn’t e-prescribe because of the DEA issue. Dr. Hunt, a surgeon, said a large percentage of his prescriptions are not eligible for electronic submission. Instead of running his practice with two workflows, to incorporate e-prescribing, he said he has stuck with his paper pad.
Other experts say physician resistance to e-prescribing is not as clear-cut.
In New Hampshire, for example, there was an aggressive campaign launched in 2007 aimed at getting 100% of physicians e-prescribing within one year. New Hampshire State Rep. Cindy Rosenwald, whose husband is a cardiologist, said that three years later, 50% of doctors in New Hampshire use some form of an EMR, but only 20% have e-prescribing capabilities.
“That’s going to be a huge challenge for us,” Rosenwald said at a public policy forum held during HIMSS, which met in early March in Atlanta.
Rosenwald said another contributing factor in New Hampshire could have been a state law that was passed, after the e-prescribing initiative was announced, giving patients the right to a paper prescription for the purpose of shopping around.
Other barriers mentioned by Surescripts in the report were the limited number of state Medicaid programs that can provide formulary and eligibility information to prescribers.
It also says prescriber and pharmacy directories need to be maintained actively to ensure that prescriptions that can be sent electronically are transmitted electronically as often as possible. Generally, a prescription that is sent electronically but comes to the pharmacy as a fax — because the pharmacy doesn’t have the technology to accept the transmission — is not considered e-prescribing.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
2007 2008 2009
Electronic prescriptions 29 million 68 million 190 million
New prescriptions 24 million 55 million 156 million
Renewal requests 5 million 13 million 35 million
Overall growth 131% 180%
Active e-prescribers 36,000 74,000 156,000
Connected pharmacies 41,000 46,000 53,000
Source by Surescripts
Above article publish on http://www.eprescriptionservices.com/eprescribing-growing-practices/
A new report finds a significant uptick in the number of physicians who prescribe electronically. But the e-prescribers still only account for about one in four physicians, or 26% of office-based doctors.
The numbers come from Surescripts, which operates the nation’s largest e-prescribing network. It released its annual e-prescribing progress report on March 2. The report found that although there was significant progress in adoption of electronic prescribing, there are still barriers to overcome.
The report found that the percentage of eligible prescriptions sent electronically increased from 6% to 18% from the end of 2008 to the end of 2009, as measured by tracking traffic through the Surescripts network. The 2009 total represented 190 million out of about 1.6 billion eligible prescriptions for an overall annual rate of 12%, according to the report, “Advancing Healthcare in America.”
“For e-prescription use to jump from 6% to 18% in one year indicates several things,” said Harry Totonis, president and CEO of Surescripts, in a prepared statement. “First, that the federal government’s leadership and incentive structures are working. Second, that the benefits of e-prescribing — including increased safety, lower costs and increased efficiency — are widely understood. And last, that the nation’s experience with e-prescribing — in building the network and the ecosystem to support it — provides a definitive road map for how to drive adoption of a broader electronic health record for all Americans.”
The Surescripts report found that about 70% of physicians who do e-prescribe use an application on their EMRs. Company spokesman Rob Cronin said many EMRs might not have been certified in 2009 for e-prescribing under the rules that qualify physicians for incentives. Many of those systems are now becoming certified, and that accounted for a large chunk of the e-prescribing growth.
On the subject of electronic prescribing’s safety benefits, in February Weill Cornell Medical College in New York released the results of its study comparing the safety of e-prescribing with paper-based prescribing.
The authors found that nearly two of every five paper prescriptions contained an error. The authors reviewed 3,684 paper-based prescriptions at the start of the study, and 3,848 paper-based and electronic prescriptions written one year later. It found that after a year, the percentage of errors dropped from 43% to 7% for physicians and other prescribers using the electronic system.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services e-prescribing incentives, which started in January 2009, also were a motivator for adoption of electronic prescribing, according to Surescripts. And the incentives that will be made available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to stimulate EMR growth are expected to motivate even more to adopt e-prescribing, experts said. E-prescribing is one criteria that must be met to qualify for EMR incentive money.
Also cited as drivers of e-prescribing adoption were numerous public and private efforts, including the American Medical Association’s June 2009 introduction of its Zero-In Rx e-prescribing learning center.
But some experts wonder if e-prescribing adoption rates would be higher if it weren’t for a Drug Enforcement Administration rule that requires all controlled substance prescriptions be written on paper.
David Hunt, MD, officer of provider adoption support for the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, told a crowd of physicians and others gathered in March for the annual meeting of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society that he himself doesn’t e-prescribe because of the DEA issue. Dr. Hunt, a surgeon, said a large percentage of his prescriptions are not eligible for electronic submission. Instead of running his practice with two workflows, to incorporate e-prescribing, he said he has stuck with his paper pad.
Other experts say physician resistance to e-prescribing is not as clear-cut.
In New Hampshire, for example, there was an aggressive campaign launched in 2007 aimed at getting 100% of physicians e-prescribing within one year. New Hampshire State Rep. Cindy Rosenwald, whose husband is a cardiologist, said that three years later, 50% of doctors in New Hampshire use some form of an EMR, but only 20% have e-prescribing capabilities.
“That’s going to be a huge challenge for us,” Rosenwald said at a public policy forum held during HIMSS, which met in early March in Atlanta.
Rosenwald said another contributing factor in New Hampshire could have been a state law that was passed, after the e-prescribing initiative was announced, giving patients the right to a paper prescription for the purpose of shopping around.
Other barriers mentioned by Surescripts in the report were the limited number of state Medicaid programs that can provide formulary and eligibility information to prescribers.
It also says prescriber and pharmacy directories need to be maintained actively to ensure that prescriptions that can be sent electronically are transmitted electronically as often as possible. Generally, a prescription that is sent electronically but comes to the pharmacy as a fax — because the pharmacy doesn’t have the technology to accept the transmission — is not considered e-prescribing.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
2007 2008 2009
Electronic prescriptions 29 million 68 million 190 million
New prescriptions 24 million 55 million 156 million
Renewal requests 5 million 13 million 35 million
Overall growth 131% 180%
Active e-prescribers 36,000 74,000 156,000
Connected pharmacies 41,000 46,000 53,000
Source by Surescripts
Above article publish on http://www.eprescriptionservices.com/eprescribing-growing-practices/
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