| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
Handheld Prescribing
Electronic prescribing means many things in healthcare. This section introduces electronic prescribing as part of a healthcare information technology (HIT) system.
Introduction to Handheld Prescribing
Handheld prescribing holds promise for simplifying the prescription process. Many herald it as the perfect entry point into using electronic medical records (EMR). Using a simple Handheld Prescribing program for a period of time could make fully implementing an EMR less intimidating. Since it is typically a less expensive option than a full blown EMR, it also offers an incremental step towards a paperless office.
While it may not be as easy as simply installing programs onto your handheld, the idea does have many advocates.
This section introduces you to the handheld prescribing and provides many resources for additional learning. This is not a review of EMR products, but rather stand-alone handheld prescribing products.
Benefits of Handheld Prescribing
While some benefits of a handheld prescribing system are obvious, others are less apparent. Overall, handheld prescribing:
- Eliminates illegible prescriptions.
- Enhances communication between provider, patient, payer, and pharmacy.
- Improves work efficiency.
- Can help avoid some very preventable errors, such as drug-drug interactions, drug-allergy reactions, dosing errors, and therapeutic duplication when using advanced programs. In pediatrics, with weight-based dosing needed for practically every prescription written, this kind of decision support is crucial for reducing errors.
- Can provide patient-based information that can be given for each medication prescribed, when using certain programs.
- Gives cost information that may not be as readily available to providers in our traditional prescribing methods.
Levels of Electronic Prescribing
(excerpted from eHealth Initiative's Electronic Prescribing: Towards Maximum Value and Rapid Adoption)
Electronic prescribing systems are available in a variety of graduated levels:
- Drug reference only, with no prescribing capability
- Stand-alone prescription writer with no medication history or supporting data
- Prescription writer that also provides basic supporting data, such as allergies, demographics and formulary information, which can be used by the system to generate alerts
- Medication management system, which allows long-term tracking and monitoring of each patient's active medications
- A network that provides connectivity among practices, pharmacies, payers, pharmacy benefit management companies (PBM), intermediaries, and patients
- Integration with a more complete electronic health record
Each level has its benefits. However, systems at the higher levels of sophistication (which may be associated with higher start-up cost and complexity) afford much greater opportunities for quality improvement, reduction in errors and improved workflow efficiency.
Points to Ponder When Considering a Handheld Prescribing System
Consider what type of system your practice is ready to handle. Not all programs perform every task, but decide your priorities by asking these questions:
- Would you like to use handhelds at the point of care to generate prescriptions that could be electronically transmitted or faxed to the pharmacy?
- Do you need ready access to your patient database on PDAs with names, address, phone numbers, insurance info, allergies, pharmacy info etc?
- Would you like to use a PDA or a PC to generate or authorize prescription refills?
- Would you like to have ready access to patient medication history and be able to generate paper copies for a chart if necessary?
- Would you like to integrate with drug database software, such as Epocrates to check for drug interactions, etc?
- Should the product be HIPAA compliant?
- Can you easily update prescription databases on the PDA with patient management software when there are changes in demographics or new patients?
- Can the product interface with an insurance company formulary to avoid prescribing non-formulary medications?
- Will it transfer a patient medication history database to other software (e.g. EMR) later on down the road if necessary?
- Is it reasonably priced?
Additional Handheld Prescribing Learning Resources
|
|
|
|
|
|
