Allscripts ePrescribing Solutions Attain SureScripts(R) Advanced Certification
for Pharmacy Interoperability
CHICAGO, Jan. 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Allscripts, the leading
provider of clinical software, connectivity and information solutions that
physicians use to improve healthcare, announced today that it transmitted more
electronic prescriptions in 2007 over the Pharmacy Health Information
Exchange(TM) than any other e-prescribing vendor. Allscripts also had more
electronic prescribers connected to the Exchange than any other company during
2007.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20061005/ALLSCRIPTSLOGO-b)
The Pharmacy Health Information Exchange, operated by SureScripts,
facilitates the transfer of electronic prescriptions between US physicians and
the nation’s pharmacies. According to the National Progress Report on
E-Prescribing (www.surescripts.com/report), 35 million prescription
transactions were routed electronically in 2007.
“We are proud that our clients wrote more electronic prescriptions using
our software than any other vendor, helping to improve the safety and
efficiency of care for their patients,” said Glen Tullman, Chief Executive
Officer of Allscripts. “Paper prescriptions are a key cause of cost, errors
and inefficiency in our healthcare system. Electronic prescribing should be
the rule not the exception.”
Electronic prescribing automates the prescription process and alerts
prescribers if a medication might prove harmful to a patient. The technology
is considered far safer than the current system of prescribing on paper. The
non-profit Institute of Medicine says medication errors from illegible
handwriting and other pitfalls of paper prescriptions cause 1.5 million
injuries and 7,000 deaths each year.
Allscripts also announced that its eRx NOW(TM) Web-based application and
its TouchWorks(TM) Electronic Health Record (EHR) e-prescribing module have
both achieved GoldRx advanced certification from SureScripts for 2007.
SureScripts advanced certification is granted to vendors that go beyond
SureScripts baseline product certification to establish a proven track record
in pharmacy interoperability.
Allscripts HealthMatics(R) EHR has been a SureScripts Certified Solution
since 2003 and was the first EHR-based e-prescribing solution to earn the
industry-standard certification.
The criteria for SureScripts GoldRx certification status goes beyond
product compliance with technical standards. In meeting advanced
certification benchmarks, Allscripts had to demonstrate that its solutions
perform across a number of categories including pharmacy interoperability, the
ability to receive insurance formulary and medication history information,
software enhancements designed to improve workflow, and live customer
deployments.
Among the 135 SureScripts Certified Solutions, TouchWorks finished the
year ranked No. 1 in both total e-prescriptions written and total number of
users. The e-prescribing module of TouchWorks complements the Electronic
Health Record’s other functions, which automate everyday clinical tasks and
securely connect healthcare providers via the Internet to laboratories,
insurers, and all other healthcare stakeholders.
Craig Morrow, M.D., Medical Director of Southwest Medical Associates in
Las Vegas, and a longtime TouchWorks user, said the solution has been
enthusiastically adopted by the group’s 235 physicians, who collectively write
close to one million electronic prescriptions annually. “Many physicians are
intimidated by new technology and believe that they will lose efficiency
during the learning curve. We found Allscripts e-prescribing easy to learn
and realized immediate time savings in the prescription and refill process,”
Dr. Morrow said. “Most important, it’s safer for our patients and that’s why
we’re in healthcare to begin with.”
eRx NOW, the other Allscripts solution to achieve GoldRx certification
from SureScripts, is available free to any healthcare provider with legal
authority to prescribe medications, and requires no download, no new hardware,
and minimal training. Allscripts provides eRx NOW through the National
ePrescribing Patient Safety Initiative (NEPSI), a coalition of the nation’s
leading healthcare and technology companies who share a commitment to improve
patient safety by providing free access to simple, safe and secure electronic
prescribing for every physician in America. Along with national co-sponsors
Allscripts and Dell, NEPSI includes healthcare sponsors Aetna, Horizon BCBS of
New Jersey, and WellPoint; technology sponsors Cisco, Fujitsu, Microsoft, and
Sprint; information sponsor Wolters Kluwer Health; connectivity sponsor
SureScripts; lab sponsor Quest Diagnostics; search sponsor Google; and
NaviMedix.
“With eRx NOW, we were able to start e-prescribing using our existing PCs
and Internet service, and the results have been universally positive,” said
Doug Masucci, M.D., one of five physicians at Hanover Pediatric Associates in
Hanover, PA. “The patients appreciate that the scripts are at the pharmacy
when they leave the office; the pharmacies appreciate not having to decipher
my handwriting; and our staff appreciates avoiding the pharmacy phone trees
when they could be helping patients. And on top of all of that, it’s free.”
For more information on the free eRx NOW solution and NEPSI, visit
www.nationaleRx.com.
About Allscripts
Allscripts (Nasdaq: MDRX) is the leading provider of clinical software,
connectivity and information solutions that physicians use to improve
healthcare. The company’s unique solutions inform, connect and transform
healthcare, delivering improved care at lower cost. More than 40,000
physicians and thousands of other healthcare professionals in clinics and
hospitals nationwide utilize Allscripts to automate and connect everyday tasks
such as writing prescriptions, documenting patient care, managing billing and
scheduling, and safely discharging patients. To learn more, visit Allscripts
at www.allscripts.com.
This announcement may contain forward-looking statements about Allscripts
Healthcare Solutions that involve risks and uncertainties. These statements
are developed by combining currently available information with Allscripts
beliefs and assumptions. Forward-looking statements do not guarantee future
performance. Because Allscripts cannot predict all of the risks and
uncertainties that may affect it, or control the ones it does predict,
Allscripts’ actual results may be materially different from the results
expressed in its forward-looking statements. For a more complete discussion of
the risks, uncertainties and assumptions that may affect Allscripts, see the
Company’s 2006 Annual Report on Form 10-K, available through the Web site
maintained by the Securities and Exchange Commission at www.sec.gov.
SOURCE Allscripts
-0- 01/15/2008
/CONTACT: Dan Michelson, Chief Marketing Officer, +1-312-506-1217,
dan.michelson@allscripts.com, or Todd Stein, Senior Manager|Public Relations,
+1-312-506-1216, todd.stein@allscripts.com, both of Allscripts/
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/Web site: https://www.allscripts.com /
(MDRX)
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