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Cabarrus Family Medicine E-Prescribing Increases Patient Care, Safety, Efficiency

February 24, 2006 - Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina released information earlier this month announcing their program that will promote and fund the adoption of electronic prescribing to select physicians across the state. Yet, doctors and patients of Cabarrus Family Medicine, a family practice in Cabarrus & Stanly Counties, was one of the first healthcare facilities in the nation to fully implement electronic prescribing.

Cabarrus Family Medicine was part of a three-site pilot program to test the viability of electronic prescribing through A4 Health Systems, a Cary-based software and service provider for consolidated clinical, financial and administrative patient information management. Cabarrus Family Medicine’s seven family practice sites and their patients have been reaping the benefits of this new piece of medical technology since November 2004.

E-prescribing has made both patients’ and doctors’ lives easier at Cabarrus Family Medicine. According to the Healthcare Information Management Journal, two-thirds of office visits conclude with the patient receiving a prescription. With e-prescribe technology, refill authorizations can be completed in seconds instead of hours, and administrative steps related to refills can be reduced from 15 to 3.

John Irwin, Chief Information Officer for Cabarrus Family Medicine, said, "CFM sent over 20,500 electronically handled prescriptions in 2005, consisting ofboth new prescriptionsand electronic responses to medication refillsreceiveddirectly from pharmacies. We expectthe 2006 totalsto be even higheras more pharmacies participate with the SureScripts network and the process becomes even easier."

True electronic connectivity between the medical practice and the pharmacy enables the exchange of prescription information directly, computer-to-computer, through the secure SureScripts Electronic Prescribing network. This is the largest network for e-prescribing in the nation, with 85 percent of retail pharmacies currently connected to the system. Therefore, instead of prescriptions being called or faxed in, Cabarrus Family Medicine doctors can securely send a request directly to the patient’s pharmacy of choice with only the click of a laptop button.

The direct results of e-prescribe are that patients can get their medication from their pharmacist faster and doctors can spend more time talking to patients rather than pharmacists. According to information from Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina, electronic prescribing pilot programs in Massachusetts found that physicians report a time savings of up to two hours a day.

Also very important is increased safety and security. E-prescribing reduces potential errors due to misread prescriptions and look-alike or sound-alike names. In other words, pharmacists no longer have to worry about deciphering doctors’ oftentimes messy handwriting. And since prescriptions no longer have to be faxed, patient information is kept more private. 

In addition, this technology “helps us maintain a patient-drug database, which allows us to monitor drug-to-drug interactions,” Tom Earnhardt, PA-C, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Cabarrus Family Medicine says. An e-prescribing collaborative in Massachusetts reported more than 4000 instances each month when prescriptions were cancelled as a result of alerts issued due to potentially harmful drug-drug and drug-allergy interactions.

Earnhardt continues, “E-prescribing allows us to provide a higher quality of patient care. Our information systems team and doctors have worked very hard over the past few years to improve the quality of care we provide.”

At Cabarrus Family Medicine e-prescribing is part of a larger technological initiative and is tied into their HealthMatics Electronic Medical Records (EMR) system though A4 Health Systems. EMR organizes communication within the network of Cabarrus Family Medicine offices by managing orders, procedures, prescriptions, lab results, clinical documentation, and other elements of the patient chart.

With their EMR implementation 5 years ago, Earnhardt said, “We are one of the first medical groups in the region to fully adopt EMR. We did this to be able to better manage populations of patients with chronic disease and to improve the overall health and well being of all our patients.”

Irwin adds, “I believe the future of the American Healthcare System relies on the innovation and perseverance of healthcare organizations that are on the leading edge of change through technology. Those providers that help shape the future are poised to improve the standard of healthcare for current and future generations alike.”