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Four Years of Paperless Prescription Use Yields Practical Guides for Physicians, Consumers, Employers, Health Plans and Policy Makers
WASHINGTON – MAY 20, 2008 – The non-profit eHealth Initiative (eHI) and the Center for Improving Medication Management today announced the publish date of a widely anticipated report detailing the impact of electronic prescribing or “e-prescribing” on physicians, consumers, employers, health plans and policy makers nationwide. Based on research as well as actual use of paperless prescribing since 2004, the report summarizes the national experience with e-prescribing technology – from its pilot phase in several states such as California, Massachusetts, Michigan and Rhode Island, to present day use in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. – and outlines additional steps that should be taken to realize optimal results in health care improvement.
The report will be released on June 11th in conjunction with a conference in Washington, D.C., organized by the National Association of Chain Drug Stores and the eHealth Initiative: Health IT, Electronic Medical Records, Personal Health Records- Transforming Patient Care. For more information about the conference, go to http://www.nacdsfoundation.org/wmspage.cfm?parm1=1134.
Based on the combined efforts and experience of over 35,000 prescribers and approximately 40,000 pharmacies, the new report comes four years after the eHealth Initiative’s seminal 2004 report: Electronic Prescribing: Toward Maximum Value and Rapid Adoption, which represented multi-stakeholder consensus on e-prescribing design and implementation, with involvement of more than 70 leaders across every sector of health care.
Like the 2004 report, the new report will also offer clinicians and other health care providers guidelines for successful adoption, the best ways to gain safety and quality benefits from e-prescribing systems, as well as independent information regarding what they can and should expect from their health care IT system providers. More specifically, the report will include three practical guides: one for physicians, one for consumers and one for health plans and employers.
Developed with the oversight of an expert Steering Committee made up of physicians, consumers, employers, health plans, health systems, hospitals and pharmacies, the report resulting from the effort will offer important guidance at a critical time when e-prescribing is being considered by policy makers at the national and state levels.
Congress is currently considering legislation to encourage e-prescribing and the Administration is also examining changes in policy that would support its use. At the same time, several states are also focused on e-prescribing, with 52 separate pieces of legislation introduced in 2008 across nine different states that include provisions related directly or indirectly to e-prescribing . Stakeholders across the country are also leading or participating in market-led initiatives to accelerate the use of e-prescribing for optimal results.
About the Center for Improving Medication Management
The Center for Improving Medication Management serves as an industry resource by gathering and disseminating best and worst practices related to technology deployment for electronic medication management and for leveraging that technology and connectivity to test innovative approaches to improve patient adherence with prescribed medications. The Center was founded by American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), Humana Inc., Intel Corporation, the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) and SureScripts. More information about The Center is available at http://www.theCIMM.org.
About eHealth Initiative and its Foundation
The eHealth Initiative and its Foundation are independent, non-profit affiliated organizations whose missions are the same: to drive improvements in the quality, safety, and efficiency of healthcare through information and information technology.
eHI engages multiple stakeholders, including clinicians, consumer and patient groups, employers, health plans, health IT suppliers, hospitals and other providers, laboratories, pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers, pharmacies, public health, public sector agencies, and its growing coalition of more than 200 state, regional and community-based collaboratives, to reach agreement on and drive the adoption of common principles, policies and best practices for improving the quality, safety and effectiveness of healthcare through information and information technology. For more information, go to www.ehealthinitiative.org.
Media Contacts:
Rob Cronin
For The Center for Improving Medication Management
917-414-5289
rob.cronin@surescripts.com
Cary Conway
For the eHealth Initiative
972.731.9242
cary@conwaycommunication.com
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