Rural physician practices in Tennessee are receiving free electronic prescribing tools thanks to a pilot program launched earlier this month by the Bureau of TennCare and Shared Health, the state's largest public/private health information exchange.
Fifty rural physician practices across 13 counties are participating in the TennCare ePrescribing pilot program. TennCare is the state's managed-care Medicaid program.
The practices were chosen because they did not have the access or resources to implement e-prescribing.
"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 for our providers. We hope to see an increase in patient satisfaction as well as the satisfaction of our employees," said Dawn James, chief nursing officer for Hickman Community Hospital.
The purpose of the pilot program is to study patterns, behaviors and user satisfaction across different practices, specialties and locations.
The program provides participating physicians with free equipment, software, Internet access for prescribers and training and support.
Tennessee physicians have access to a medication database, automatic prescription histories, real-time notification of TennCare and other insurance formulary status, automated checks for drug interactions, dosage levels and patient-specific factors, including any previous adverse reactions.
"The ePrescribing process increases patient safety tremendously for the members in our database," said Marek Durakiewicz, MD, chief of staff at Hickman Community Hospital. "Having access to the patient insurance formulary information saves time and makes the prescribing process easier for us."
Physicians using the e-prescribing technology can route prescriptions to pharmacies that use TennCare Pharmacy Benefits Manager.
The use of e-prescribing also allows for approved pharmacies to be reimbursed the transaction fee associated with filing prescriptions.
The program runs through June 30. Within 30 days of its conclusion, TennCare and Shared Health will closely examine the use patterns of participating physicians to determine the features that are most useful to rural physicians.
The pilot program is designed to be a catalyst for e-prescribing adoption among rural physician practices based on its demonstrated value. TennCare officials say information solutions like those offered by Shared Health represent a huge opportunity to help physicians increase clinical quality, reduce unnecessary costs and streamline workflows.