News
MedPlus® Chosen as Certified Provider for ePrescribe Florida
Care360™ Physician Portal with ePrescribing Available to Florida Physicians
June 17, 2008
CINCINNATI – June 17, 2008 – MedPlus®, the healthcare information technology subsidiary of Quest Diagnostics® Incorporated (NYSE:DGX), today announced it has been named a registered ePrescribe Florida electronic prescription solution vendor. The ePrescribe Florida initiative seeks to increase patient safety by advancing the medical community’s adoption of electronic prescribing. After a rigorous capabilities review process, the Care360™ Physician Portal with ePrescribing is now certified for use by physician practices, pharmacies, hospitals and other healthcare providers in the state of Florida. MedPlus developed and supports the patient-centric Care360 Physician Portal.
“The state of Florida is taking a strong step into the future of healthcare with the ePrescribe Florida initiative,” explains Richard Mahoney, MedPlus president and vice president of Healthcare Information Solutions for Quest Diagnostics. “The Care360 Physician Portal is unique because it combines laboratory and medication data into one application, providing physicians with access to critical information they need to make better patient care decisions. Since 70 percent of patient care decisions are based on lab results, we provide a value add where physicians can view both labs and meds in a single view which will ultimately lead to improved patient care, safety and better patient outcomes.”
As part of the ePrescribe Florida initiative, MedPlus, through the Care360 ePrescribing solution, will facilitate ordering, refilling and managing patient prescriptions while helping to eliminate data omissions and errors, requiring less need for follow-up with patients, pharmacies or providers. Currently more than 100,000 physician users nationwide rely upon the laboratory ordering and results capability of the Care360 family of products, with more than 15,000 physicians already using the system in Florida alone. Adding the ePrescribing component to the Care360 Physician Portal is simple, seamless and unobtrusive, enabling prescriptions to be charted electronically right alongside lab results.
Electronic prescribing improves prescription accuracy, increases patient safety, reduces costs and provides secure, two-way connectivity between physician practices and pharmacies. Launched in 2007, ePrescribe Florida works to improve the level of patient safety in the state by spreading physician adoption of ePrescribing through cooperation and coordination among the healthcare community. By working directly with healthcare payers, ePrescribe Florida is serving to expand adoption of electronic prescribing.
Physicians currently using Care360 ePrescribing are seeing increased efficiency and effectiveness in a variety of areas.
“Care360 ePrescribing has been valuable in managing prescription renewals, including increasing our office visit compliance for those needing renewals,” notes Darby Novak, RN of the office of Dr. James Willis, a family medicine practitioner in Kissimmee, FLA. “Additionally, it’s a valuable tool for identifying our patients taking a particular drug for recalls and routine care.”
Care360 ePrescribing reduces paperwork, increases time available to focus on patient care and enhances the overall quality of care. Electronically charted prescriptions eliminate dependency on paper charts for filling prescriptions or responding to inquiries and allowing medication adjustments to be made as lab results dictate. In addition, Care360 ePrescribing also allows physicians to conveniently order prescriptions and access available patient history, whether they are in or out of the office.
Care360 provides easy access to available patient medication history, including prescriptions written by other providers. This makes it simple to efficiently share patient lab and prescription data with other Care360 medical providers. Built-in quality controls can then alert the physician to any possible drug-interactions, allergies or contraindications within a prescription, further improving patient safety. The patient also benefits from reduced wait times at pharmacies.
“The key to success for any ePrescribing initiative like Florida’s, as well as similar programs in other states, is making the solution seamless for physicians and pharmacists to incorporate into their daily workflows,” adds Mahoney. “Perhaps even more importantly, it needs to be easy to use.
Care360 ePrescribing succeeds on both fronts and MedPlus is excited to have the opportunity to leverage our existing physician office technologies to help drive the efficiency, accuracy and cost savings of electronic prescriptions to the healthcare community of Florida.”
MedPlus is also involved in other ePrescribing initiatives. The company has an arrangement with the Southeastern Michigan ePrescribing Initiative (SEMI), which has seen significant success in that state. According to a review of SEMI released in March 2008, nearly 70 percent of respondents stated that ePrescribing has been a beneficial tool in their practices. Another 65 percent said that they altered their prescribing habits based on instant adverse-reaction alerts, a key feature of the system. The review also found that 40 percent of physicians enrolled in the program have done away with paper prescriptions entirely.
About ePrescribe Florida
ePrescribe Florida is a collaboration of the state’s leading health plans, provider organizations and other healthcare organizations created to increase patient safety and meet the needs of the Florida public by promoting the benefits and supporting the adoption of electronic prescribing. For more information, visit http://www.eprescribeflorida.com.
