Allscripts Ranked No. 1 in Electronic Prescribing for 2007
Allscripts ePrescribing Solutions Attain SureScripts(R) Advanced Certification for Pharmacy Interoperability
CHICAGO (January 15, 2008) –
Allscripts, the leading provider of clinical software, connectivity and information solutions that physicians use to improve healthcare, announced today that it transmitted more electronic prescriptions in 2007 over the Pharmacy Health Information Exchange(TM) than any other e-prescribing vendor. Allscripts also had more electronic prescribers connected to the Exchange than any other company during 2007.
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The Pharmacy Health Information Exchange, operated by SureScripts, facilitates the transfer of electronic prescriptions between US physicians and the nation’s pharmacies. According to the National Progress Report on E-Prescribing (www.surescripts.com/report), 35 million prescription transactions were routed electronically in 2007.
“We are proud that our clients wrote more electronic prescriptions using our software than any other vendor, helping to improve the safety and efficiency of care for their patients,” said Glen Tullman, Chief Executive Officer of Allscripts. “Paper prescriptions are a key cause of cost, errors and inefficiency in our healthcare system. Electronic prescribing should be the rule not the exception.”
Electronic prescribing automates the prescription process and alerts prescribers if a medication might prove harmful to a patient. The technology is considered far safer than the current system of prescribing on paper. The non-profit Institute of Medicine says medication errors from illegible handwriting and other pitfalls of paper prescriptions cause 1.5 million injuries and 7,000 deaths each year.
Allscripts also announced that its eRx NOW(TM) Web-based application and its TouchWorks(TM) Electronic Health Record (EHR) e-prescribing module have both achieved GoldRx advanced certification from SureScripts for 2007. SureScripts advanced certification is granted to vendors that go beyond SureScripts baseline product certification to establish a proven track record in pharmacy interoperability.
Allscripts HealthMatics(R) EHR has been a SureScripts Certified Solution since 2003 and was the first EHR-based e-prescribing solution to earn the industry-standard certification.
The criteria for SureScripts GoldRx certification status goes beyond product compliance with technical standards. In meeting advanced certification benchmarks, Allscripts had to demonstrate that its solutions perform across a number of categories including pharmacy interoperability, the ability to receive insurance formulary and medication history information, software enhancements designed to improve workflow, and live customer deployments.
Among the 135 SureScripts Certified Solutions, TouchWorks finished the year ranked No. 1 in both total e-prescriptions written and total number of users. The e-prescribing module of TouchWorks complements the Electronic Health Record’s other functions, which automate everyday clinical tasks and securely connect healthcare providers via the Internet to laboratories, insurers, and all other healthcare stakeholders.
Craig Morrow, M.D., Medical Director of Southwest Medical Associates in Las Vegas, and a longtime TouchWorks user, said the solution has been enthusiastically adopted by the group’s 235 physicians, who collectively write close to one million electronic prescriptions annually. “Many physicians are intimidated by new technology and believe that they will lose efficiency during the learning curve. We found Allscripts e-prescribing easy to learn and realized immediate time savings in the prescription and refill process,” Dr. Morrow said. “Most important, it’s safer for our patients and that’s why we’re in healthcare to begin with.”
eRx NOW, the other Allscripts solution to achieve GoldRx certification from SureScripts, is available free to any healthcare provider with legal authority to prescribe medications, and requires no download, no new hardware, and minimal training. Allscripts provides eRx NOW through the National ePrescribing Patient Safety Initiative (NEPSI), a coalition of the nation’s leading healthcare and technology companies who share a commitment to improve patient safety by providing free access to simple, safe and secure electronic prescribing for every physician in America. Along with national co-sponsors Allscripts and Dell, NEPSI includes healthcare sponsors Aetna, Horizon BCBS of New Jersey, and WellPoint; technology sponsors Cisco, Fujitsu, Microsoft, and Sprint; information sponsor Wolters Kluwer Health; connectivity sponsor SureScripts; lab sponsor Quest Diagnostics; search sponsor Google; and NaviMedix.
“With eRx NOW, we were able to start e-prescribing using our existing PCs and Internet service, and the results have been universally positive,” said Doug Masucci, M.D., one of five physicians at Hanover Pediatric Associates in Hanover, PA. “The patients appreciate that the scripts are at the pharmacy when they leave the office; the pharmacies appreciate not having to decipher my handwriting; and our staff appreciates avoiding the pharmacy phone trees when they could be helping patients. And on top of all of that, it’s free.”
For more information on the free eRx NOW solution and NEPSI, visit www.nationaleRx.com.
About Allscripts
Allscripts (Nasdaq: MDRX) is the leading provider of clinical software, connectivity and information solutions that physicians use to improve healthcare. The company’s unique solutions inform, connect and transform healthcare, delivering improved care at lower cost. More than 40,000 physicians and thousands of other healthcare professionals in clinics and hospitals nationwide utilize Allscripts to automate and connect everyday tasks such as writing prescriptions, documenting patient care, managing billing and scheduling, and safely discharging patients. To learn more, visit Allscripts at www.allscripts.com.
This announcement may contain forward-looking statements about Allscripts Healthcare Solutions that involve risks and uncertainties. These statements are developed by combining currently available information with Allscripts beliefs and assumptions. Forward-looking statements do not guarantee future performance. Because Allscripts cannot predict all of the risks and uncertainties that may affect it, or control the ones it does predict, Allscripts’ actual results may be materially different from the results expressed in its forward-looking statements. For a more complete discussion of the risks, uncertainties and assumptions that may affect Allscripts, see the Company’s 2006 Annual Report on Form 10-K, available through the Web site maintained by the Securities and Exchange Commission at www.sec.gov.
SOURCE Allscripts
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/CONTACT: Dan Michelson, Chief Marketing Officer, +1-312-506-1217,
dan.michelson@allscripts.com, or Todd Stein, Senior Manager|Public Relations,
+1-312-506-1216, todd.stein@allscripts.com, both of Allscripts/
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Source: Allscripts
