Expanding the reach of e-Prescribing

Last month, Sage Software joined a group of large healthcare-related organizations in an effort to revise regulations prohibiting electronic prescribing of controlled substances. The coalition is petitioning the White House and President George W. Bush, because it believes the current regulations are limiting adoption or electronic prescribing and foregoing potential significant efficiencies that e-prescribing brings to healthcare.

Preventing medication errors
E-Prescribing systems not only streamline workflows for practices, but they significantly improve patient safety by providing warnings about adverse drug interactions and allergies. According to the Institute of Medicine there are at least 1.5 million adverse drug events (ADEs) that could be prevented each year 1. The adoption of e-Prescribing systems could allow healthcare practitioners to avoid many of these disastrous mistakes.

What’s more, according to the coalition’s White House plea, electronic prescriptions save lives by eliminating miscommunications such as illegible handwriting, unclear abbreviations, ambiguous orders, complex regimens and dosages, and enable a reduction in ADEs.

“E-Prescribing is safe and secure,” says Michael Burger, director of clinical product management for Sage Software Healthcare. “We appreciate what the government’s obligation to safeguard public health, but the vast inefficiencies in our healthcare system are overlooked in the current regulations. E-Prescribing is one of the many remedies that could counteract such inefficiencies. The cost savings are immense and the need in our healthcare system is great.”

e-Prescribing today
While the results of the coalition’s efforts won’t be known for some time, practices that are utilizing e-Prescribing technology today are seeing the benefits. Tucson Gastroenterology Specialists is now able to refill prescriptions in just 15 – 20 seconds, compared to 5 minutes or more before the implementation of the Intergy by Sage suite of products.

Sage Software is at the forefront of this burgeoning technology, enabling over six million e-Prescriptions each year.

Sage Software can help
Delivering leading electronic solutions for over 25 years has allowed Sage Software to see what works for practices like yours. Integrated tools such as Intergy EHR by Sage’s e-Prescribing module save time by streamlining workflows and automated checks for interactions and formulary compliance make prescriptions safer and more affordable for your patients.

Ready to get started?
Contact us today to find out about the e-prescribing options available through Intergy EHR or about adding e-prescribing to your other Sage Software products such as The Medical Manager by Sage.

1 Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. (July 2006.) Preventing Medication Errors. Retrieved from http://www.iom.edu/Object.File/Master/35/943/medication%20errors%20new.pdf.