A partnership between the Massachusetts Medical Society
(MMS) and Quilogy, a provider of emerging technology solutions, has
yielded an electronic prescription pad for physicians. The software
will be rolled out in the coming months.
The pad was designed to provide MMS physicians with a free tool
to enter patient prescription information and augment safety by
being able to write and preview prescriptions on the pad before
being filled.
Patient safety is a major benefit, especially in light of an
Institute of Medicine study that said 44,000 to 98,000 patient
deaths occur yearly as a result of misread prescriptions and fatal
medication interactions.
"Writing prescriptions can often be complex, and this pad will
provide a way for physicians to communicate directly with
pharmacies to ensure all prescription information is correct and
current," said MMS president Dr Thomas Sullivan.
Along with patient safety improvements, the pad will increase
efficiency by enabling physicians and staff members to perform
several prescription-related functions rapidly.
"With the pad, nurses and administrative staffers can enter
prescription renewals and tee up prescriptions for physicians to
sign off," said Alex Paytuvi, managing consultant for
Quilogy. "Then they are directed to a fax queue to be sent to a
pharmacy.
"Physicians can review the information in the queue to accept
and/or deny prescription information, look up patient history, and
modify the prescription before it is sent to the pharmacy. Changes
can be made to these prescriptions as needed," Paytuvi added.
A physician can use the software to review an active medications
list for a specific patient. When the prescription is written, the
physician accesses a lookup form with outgoing prescription order
information, including patient and physician names and contact
information, drug prescribed and instructions.
A digital-ink image of the physician's signature is used to
verify all prescription information. Signatures of MMS physicians
using the pad are cross-referenced with the MMS database to verify
that the physician is in good standing.
When the approval process is complete, a Microsoft Word document
is created and faxed to a pharmacy via a web service. This document
contains all relevant prescription information. While sounding like
a complex series of steps, it can happen in seconds, depending on
how long it takes for the physician to review the patient
information.
Physicians can access the pad by downloading it from the MMS
website to a tablet, notebook, or desktop PC. The pad runs on
Windows XP-based platforms and works with Office System 11 and
Microsoft Access.
"So far, we like what we have with this," Sullivan said. "We are
planning on increasing front- and back-end connectivity with health
plans and pharmacies. Adding comprehensive web services for
medication lists and machine-to-machine connectivity are also part
of taking the next step."
Sullivan stated he would like this initiative to be a prototype
for medical organisations throughout the US, when the pad is more
fully functional. "Developing a system to facilitate prescriptions
is very complicated, and having more functionality is a major part
of our plan."
Development was made possible through a $25,000 grant awarded to
both organisations from Microsoft earlier this year.
Jeff Berman writes for Health-IT World