CoxHealth launches ePrescribing program

CoxHealth on Sept. 10 launched an ePrescribing system, allowing doctors to send prescriptions electronically via a secure online system, eliminating handwritten, computer-printed and faxed prescriptions, and already, patients and pharmacists are seeing improvements.

“I’m not pointing any fingers here, but sometimes doctors’ handwriting can be less than exemplary,” said Jim Coker, owner of Rogersville Pharmacy, one of the test sites for CoxHealth’s ePrescribing. “(This program) reduces the errors from that. The doctor is basically typing the script directly into our system. There’s nothing, theoretically, lost in translation.”

Through a partnership with Kryptiq and SureScripts Pharmacy Network, the ePrescribing program cost $55,000 to implement, plus a small fee per prescription. It is available in 41 of CoxHealth’s 56 southwest Missouri clinics and facilities. The program works hand in hand with an electronic medical record program Cox began implementing nearly 10 years ago, said Bruce Robison, CoxHealth’s chief information officer.

“The advantage (of the EMR) is that it improves the safety of the information that we’re maintaining, the efficiency in keeping that information, and the helpfulness to the physicians,” Robison said. “But we wanted to take that clear through to the pharmacies and the patients. It was the next step for us to improve the process.”

St. John’s Health System is working to implement a similar electronic prescription program as part of parent organization Sisters of Mercy’s $450 million Genesis Project, the health system’s electronic integration of patient records.

Micki Struckhoff, St. John’s vice president of systems integration, said the first St. John’s facilities will begin using the prescription program in February.

She added that the new system at St. John’s, like the one at CoxHealth, is equipped with an automatic prescription check for extra safety.

“When a physician electronically prescribes a medication, it will go on the patient’s medication list, and that will be available to anyone in our system that uses the program,” Struckhoff said. “They can see what prescriptions the doctor has prescribed for you.”

CoxHealth’s Robison said the system expedites the process of filling prescriptions. If doctors send in the prescription while the patient is still in the office, the pharmacy can begin filling the order before the patient ever arrives.

Robison said about 19,000 prescriptions were filled with ePrescribing during its first three weeks in service.

Pharmacist Coker, who said patients already have noticed the faster service, is glad to experiment with the service.

“I just started this pharmacy in February, and I wanted to get on board with ePrescribing,” Coker said. “I told (Cox), ‘If you need somebody to try the system on or ask questions to, I’d be happy to try it out.’ I love new toys.”[[In-content Ad]]