Friday, November 11, 2011

Mass. tops U.S. states in e-prescription use

By Julie M. Donnelly, Boston Business Journal

Massachusetts is the most advanced state in the country when it comes to electronically prescribing medications to patients, according to a study by e-prescribing services company Surescripts, based in Arlington, Va.

The study, covering 2009 to 2010, found that 11,005 physicians are actively e-prescribing, 1,038 pharmacies are enabled to receive prescriptions electronically, and 77.35 percent of the state’s patients have available electronic information on their prescription benefits and history. Prescribers in the Bay State used e-prescribing for 43 percent of all prescriptions in 2010, according to the study.

After Massachusetts, the top states for e-prescribing were Delaware, Michigan, Connecticut and Rhode Island, according to the report. The lowest adoption levels of e-prescribing were found in Washington DC, followed by Alaska, Nevada, Montana and North Dakota.

E-prescribing is one of the first goals in the move towards electronic health records and has been shown to reduce the danger of drug interactions for patients with multiple medications prescribed by different doctors. E-prescribing also helps to avoid errors that occur when pharmacists misread a doctor’s handwriting.

Surescripts said overall, more than 52 percent of office-based doctors now use e-prescribing, and 94 percent of retail pharmacies nationwide are now connected and receiving e-prescriptions. There are 357,000 active prescribers on the Surescripts network.