TennCare and Shared Health(R) Partner to Deliver ePrescribing to Rural ...( The pilot program highlights the pot...),Health

The pilot program highlights the potential of clinical information-sharing and streamlined prescribing workflow for rural practices. "Shared Health is very excited about this opportunity to demonstrate the many advantages of electronic prescribing, which has proven its value for safety and efficient medication management. More importantly, this pilot will help us learn more about the process of electronic prescribing, providing insights into how we can make these effective applications even better," explained Bruce Taffel, M.D., chief medical officer of Shared Health.

The implementation of the program took place in early March, and the program runs through June 30. Within 30 days of the conclusion of the pilot, TennCare and Shared Health will closely examine the utilization patterns of participating physicians to determine the features that are most useful to rural physicians. The effectiveness of the program will be measured by:

-- Comparing prescription patterns for participants before and after

implementation;

-- Percent of prior authorizations compared with total prescriptions;

-- Trends in the use of generic prescriptions;

-- Attitude changes; and

-- Level of provider satisfaction.

Physician response to the program has been enthusiastic. "The ePrescribing process increases patient safety tremendously for the members in our database," said Marek Durakiewicz, M.D., chief of staff for Hickman Community Hospital. "Having access to the patient insurance formulary information saves time and makes the prescribing process easier for us," he continued.

Dawn James, R.N., chief nursing officer for Hickman Community Hospital, added, "We are extremely fortunate to be included in this pilot to not only make things more efficient and safe for the providers, but also our patients. Without this funding and assistance, those of us in a rural community would not be able to provide this type of technology
'/>"/>