With health care providers' desire to increase accuracy, lower costs and increase efficiency, e-prescription use in the United States is exploding. Surescripts® reports that by the end of 2009, approximately 18 percent of eligible prescriptions were prescribed electronically compared with just 6.6 percent at the end of 2008. And, the number of prescriptions routed electronically jumped from 68 million in 2008 to 191 million in 2009. Acknowledging this trend, Elekta applied for and received Surescripts certification for its MOSAIQ® oncology information system.
Operating the nation's largest e-prescribing network, Surescripts connects prescribers to their choice of e-prescribing software to pharmacies. Clinics and medical centers using MOSAIQ (v 2.2 and higher) can electronically route prescriptions to independent and chain-based pharmacies in the Surescripts network.
"Exchanging prescription information electronically between subscribers and pharmacies improves the accuracy of the prescribing process and saves time," says Donna Getreuer, RN, MSN, CTR and Director of Medical Oncology Business Marketing for Elekta. "Time-savings result primarily from reduced pharmacy phone calls and faxes related to prescription renewal authorizations and from a reduced need for pharmacy staff to key in prescription data."
E-prescribing supports HITECH Act criteria
As part of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, federal funds are available as incentives for centers that use EMR systems in a meaningful way.
"The cost-savings and workflow efficiencies of e-prescribing support the HITECH Act's meaningful use criteria," Getreuer says.
Surescripts' e-prescribing capabilities are fully integrated within the MOSAIQ EMR. Additional benefits include:
- Streamlined workflow to improve process efficiency and ensure high quality patient care.
- Physician time-savings with easy to use oncology-specific capabilities
- Real-time communications between doctors, pharmacies and patients
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