eClinicalWorks(TM) Achieves SureScripts GoldRx(TM) Certification for 2007

eClinicalWorks EMR Solution Attains Advanced Certification for Pharmacy Interoperability

Alexandria, Va. (February 04, 2008) – ureScripts, operator of the Pharmacy Health Information Exchange(TM), today announced that eClinicalWorks has achieved GoldRx advanced product certification for 2007. The announcement signals how the eClinicalWorks unified electronic medical records (EMR) and practice management (PM) solution has gone beyond SureScripts baseline product certification to establish a proven track record in pharmacy interoperability.
“eClinicalWorks is dedicated to providing solutions that improve the efficiency of medical practices and the quality of care patients receive,” said Girish Kumar Navani, president of eClinicalWorks. “E-prescribing is a significant component of that. Receiving GoldRx certification from SureScripts is a testament to that commitment and we look forward to continuing to increase the adoption of e-prescribing in the coming year.”
“eClinicalWorks makes it simple to send electronic prescriptions directly from the patient note,” said Dr. Rajesh Dharampuriya, an internal medicine physician in Clinton, Mass., and chief medical officer of eClinicalWorks. “This ease of sending prescriptions through eClinicalWorks and the Pharmacy Health Information Exchange helps make my practice more efficient and saves time for our patients.”
“Electronic medical records are moving past the phase of passively collecting patient information to actively aiding the physician in managing care,” said Girish Kumar Navani, president of eClinicalWorks. “eClinicalWorks is leading this trend with quality of care measures that allow medical staff to provide this type of chronic and preventative care management. Using eClinicalWorks will enable San Mateo Medical Center-affiliated physicians to bring patient care to the next level.”
“SureScripts and many health IT experts believe that the electronic link between a physician and a pharmacist is the most critical and the most achievable first step toward broader healthcare interoperability,” said Rick Ratliff, chief operating officer for SureScripts. “For physicians making an investment in the safety of their patients, the efficiency of their practice and the quality of their own clinical decision making, GoldRx certification helps them know which software vendors are actually delivering on pharmacy interoperability and other critical levels of automation. We congratulate eClinicalWorks on achieving GoldRx product certification for eClinicalWorks unified electronic medical records (EMR) and practice management (PM) solution for 2007.”
Over the past two years, SureScripts has tested and certified the applications of every major e-prescribing and electronic medical record (EMR) vendor in the U.S. More than 105 physician technology solutions – representing over 150,000 existing physician users – are certified by SureScripts to enable their software and services to exchange prescription information with local pharmacies. Clinics and physicians that use SureScripts Certified Solutions(TM) have the ability to electronically connect to pharmacies in their community and, as a result, have an unprecedented opportunity to improve the prescribing process.
Today, however, the vast majority of these estimated 150,000 physician users have not taken the simple step to take advantage of pharmacy interoperability. In many cases, physicians are unaware that electronic pharmacy access is available to them, as they are still using older versions of their vendors’ software (i.e., versions that have no electronic pharmacy connection). The result: New prescriptions are generated by computers, yet received by fax; refill requests are processed by phone and fax; patients’ medication histories from community pharmacies are unavailable to physicians; and patients’ formulary and eligibility information is not as complete as it could be.
SureScripts advanced certification gives special status to eClinicalWorks and other vendors that find this situation unacceptable – and that are meeting SureScripts’ criteria to do something about it.
The criteria for SureScripts GoldRx certification status goes beyond product compliance with technical standards. Advanced certification is guided by benchmarks for vendor performance across a number of categories:
Customer Education – vendors must raise awareness among their existing physician customers of the opportunity to communicate new prescription and refill information with pharmacists electronically.
Proven Pharmacy Interoperability – vendors must make pharmacy interoperability part of every new client installation.
Advanced Medication Management – vendors must enable their applications to receive medication history from community pharmacies, as well as formulary/eligibility services from the payers and PBMs certified by SureScripts.
Workflow Enhancements – vendors must meet specific service-level requirements related to the operations of the Pharmacy Health Information Exchange. Vendors must also implement changes to their software based on best practices for automating the prescription process. For example, in 2007, a vendor’s software application must contain a “single send button” for the physician to click on and transmit the electronic prescription to the pharmacy. This seemingly minor detail was identified by field researchers at SureScripts who have observed the confusion and delays caused by a multiple choice of send buttons (i.e. “print”, “fax”, and “electronic”) in thousands of physician practices using a variety of e-prescribing and EMR applications.
Demonstrable Expertise – GoldRx certification status signals that a software or service provider has met a number of benchmarks for “live” customer deployments – i.e. that they have electronically connected new and existing physician users to the Pharmacy Health Information Exchange. This advanced certification criteria is particularly noteworthy and timely given the federal government’s recent ruling to no longer allow computer generated faxing of prescriptions covered by the Medicare Part D program beginning January 1, 2009. This federal mandate will require all e-prescribing and EMR vendors to ensure that all of their physician users prescribe electronically instead of by computer generated fax.

Source: eClinicalWorks