Surescripts Releases Annual State Rankings and Progress Reports Detailing E-Prescribing Use and Adoption Statistics for All 50 States
Monday, June 22, 2009
Massachusetts Prescribers Now Route More Than 20 Percent
of Prescriptions Electronically, Followed by Rhode Island at 17
Percent
Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen and Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas
Accept Safe-Rx™ Award,
Highlighting States' Improved Use of
E-Prescribing
WASHINGTON, D.C. - June 22, 2009 - At an event at
the National Press Club, Surescripts announced today that
Massachusetts ranks first in the nation when it comes to routing
prescriptions electronically. According to the results of an annual
nationwide audit of electronic prescriptions routed in 2008, it was
determined that prescribers in the Bay State sent more than 6.7
million prescriptions electronically, representing 20.5 percent of
all eligible prescriptions in the state - as compared to 2.3
percent in 2005. For this accomplishment, Massachusetts was
recognized, along with 14 other states, at the fourth annual
Safe-Rx Awards.
Surescripts created the Safe-Rx Awards to raise awareness of
e-prescribing as a means of enhancing patient safety by providing a
more secure, accurate and informed prescribing process.
"Congratulations to all the Safe-Rx Award winners for increasing
the use of e-prescribing and for the benefit it has brought to the
economy, safety and quality of patient care in communities
throughout their states," said Harry Totonis, president and CEO of
Surescripts. "And as much as this program is about measuring and
recognizing real success, its greater purpose is to highlight the
leaders who are driving that success and the stories of how they
are doing it. As the numbers
and rankings suggest, each year there are more and more examples of
how a state and the various stakeholders within the state can work
together to drive e-prescribing adoption and use. We congratulate
those leaders and hope that their examples will inspire and inform
many more successful efforts in many more states in the year
ahead."
"The Massachusetts model should serve as a roadmap for the rest of
the nation," said U.S. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.). "Electronic
prescribing saves money, improves efficiency and, most importantly,
reduces life or death medical errors. While we debate how to reform
our healthcare system, improve quality and lower costs, one of our
top priorities should include modernizing the way physicians write
prescriptions."
In its first three years, the Safe-Rx Award was given annually by
Surescripts to the top 10 eprescribing states in the nation. In an
effort to measure and recognize critical progress occurring outside
states that finished in the top 10, Surescripts has introduced a
new category of state rankings: the Top 5 Most Improved (see both
lists for 2008 below).
Top 10 E-Prescribing States
1. Massachusetts
2. Rhode Island
3. Michigan
4. Nevada
5. Delaware
6. North Carolina
7. Pennsylvania*
8. Connecticut
9. Maine*
10. Arizona
*New to the top 10
Top 5 Most Improved States
1. Vermont
2. Tennessee
3. Kansas
4. Illinois
5. Missouri
Today's event featured Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen and Vermont
Gov. Jim Douglas, co-chairs of the State Alliance for e-Health and
co-hosts of the Fourth Annual Safe-Rx Awards. The State Alliance
was created by the National Governors Association Center for Best
Practices in January 2007 to improve the nation's healthcare system
by forming a collaborative body that enables states to increase the
efficiency and effectiveness of the health information technology
initiatives
they develop. The State Alliance has recognized the potential for
e-prescribing to improve both patient safety and the health of all
Americans and has encouraged states to be proactive in creating and
implementing policies that advance this and other e-health
initiatives. Govs. Bredesen and Douglas were also on hand to
receive Safe-Rx Awards recognizing their states' sizable jumps in
e-prescribing use.
"The State Alliance recognized early on that encouraging states to
make e-prescribing a top priority would have an immense value in
our electronic health efforts," said Bredesen. "Paperless
prescribing is making its way into the health care mainstream in
Tennessee and across the nation. It's our hope to see e-prescribing
become a natural part of every health care provider's workflow
because of its practical benefits to patients in providing better
care."
"To the State Alliance, e-prescribing is important to building
momentum toward the goals of an effective health care system and
improved public health," said Vermont Governor Jim Douglas. "And
I'm proud that e-prescribing has been an integral part of Vermont's
Health Information Technology strategy from the start. That's
because e-prescribing is a fundamental system improvement for
ensuring accurate, timely health care communication. Much of
Vermont health care reform is about utilizing the right tools to
enhance our systemic approach to health care reform and the
evidence regarding the value of e-prescribing is clear."
Surescripts Announces A Meaningful Change to Future State
Rankings
Historically, the Safe-Rx Awards have been based on an analysis of
data from new prescriptions and refill responses electronically
routed over the Surescripts network. States were ranked and
recognized according to the number of prescriptions routed
electronically in 2008 as a percentage of the total number of
prescriptions eligible for electronic routing.
In January 2010, Surescripts will release a new state ranking.
Using data from 2009, the rankings will measure use of not one, but
three critical steps in electronic prescribing:
1. Prescription Benefit: Electronically accessing
a patient's prescription benefit information.
2. Prescription History: With a patient's consent,
electronically accessing that patient's prescription history from
pharmacies and payers.
3. Prescription Routing: Electronically routing
the patient's prescription to their choice of pharmacy and
electronically reviewing and responding to a prescription renewal
request that pharmacies send to the physicians' practices for
approval.
This approach recognizes the combined role that prescription
benefit, history and routing play in improving the overall safety,
efficiency, cost and quality of the prescribing process. It is
Surescripts' position that measuring and reporting the actual use
of all three of these services helps define "meaningful use of
electronic prescribing" under the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act of 2009.
For a full description of the change in ranking methodology, go to
www.surescripts.com/Safe-Rx.
What About My State?
Individuals who are interested in finding out how their state is
progressing in its efforts to move to e-prescribing can go to the
Safe-Rx Awards Web site at www.surescripts.com/Safe-Rx. The site
shows a complete ranking of all 50 states and the District of
Columbia based on prescription routing. For an in-depth statistical
review of each state's progress across a number of eprescribing use
and adoption metrics, go to the U.S. maps on either
www.surescripts.com/Safe-Rx or www.surescripts.com/stats and click
on your state.
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Honored With
Safe-Rx Evangelist Award
The Safe-Rx Evangelist Award goes to a single person or
organization whose leadership has made an extraordinarily positive
impact on raising awareness and reducing medication errors by
promoting the adoption and use of electronic prescribing. In 2008,
the Safe-Rx Evangelist Award went to Health and Human Services
Secretary Michael Leavitt. In 2007, the Safe-Rx Evangelist Award
went to the Institute of Medicine for its breakthrough report
Preventing Medication Errors.
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (BCBS MA) is widely known
as a leader in electronic prescribing and health information
technology initiatives. It was one of the very first organizations
to embark on an initiative to encourage electronic prescribing with
physicians because of the many patient safety, practice efficiency
and cost saving benefits. BCBSMA took a very collaborative
approach, bringing in multiple health plans to create the eRx
Collaborative - itself a prominent advocate for e-prescribing - and
ensuring that prescribers would have access to more
comprehensive prescription benefit and prescription history
information on their patients.
"Working together sends a message that e-prescribing is important
for everyone in the community," said Steve Fox, vice president of
provider network management at BCBSMA. "As a leader in e-health
initiatives and e-prescribing programs, BCBSMA will continue to
focus on the delivery and promotion of technology to enable a
delivery system that reliably provides safe, effective and
affordable patient-centered care."
Surescripts Salutes E-Prescribers of the
Year
This year, Surescripts is recognizing six prescribers for the
outstanding leadership they have shown through their own use of
e-prescribing. Three users of standalone e-prescribing software and
three users of electronic medical record software received Safe-Rx
Awards and were recognized as E-Prescribers of the Year:
Standalone E-Prescribing Users
Dr. Amando Garza (Laredo, Texas)
Dr. Steven Green (Lancaster, Ky.)
Dr. Abdul Kabir (Monroe, Mich.)
EMR Users
Dr. Narinder Batra (Adrian, Mich.)
Dr. Michael Brewer (Springfield, Ill.)
Dr. Mark Earhart (Watkinsville, Ga.)
"More and more doctors, nurse practitioners and physician
assistants are turning to e-prescribing for the safety, efficiency
and quality advantages it provides them and their patients," said
Dr. Peter Basch, medical director for ambulatory clinical systems
at MedStar Health. "In fact, for many clinicians, their
introduction to and use of e-prescribing has helped them emerge as
leaders in their communities towards the effective use of health
information technology as part of everyday medical care."
About SureScripts
Founded by the pharmacy industry in 2001, SureScripts ® operates
the Pharmacy Health Information Exchange ™, which facilitates the
secure electronic transmission of prescription information between
physicians and pharmacists and provides access to lifesaving
information about patients during emergencies or routine care.
Today, more than 95 percent of all pharmacies and all major
physician technology vendors in the United States are certified on
the Pharmacy Health Information Exchange. More information about
SureScripts is available at www.surescripts.com.
