Free CPOE unveiled

A coalition of technology companies and health care groups has developed a new Internet site that will allow physicians to prescribe medications electronically, free of charge. At least 7,000 Americans die each year from preventable medication errors, usually involving illegible prescriptions, according to the Institute of Medicine. Yet only about 20 percent of doctors currently prescribe over the Internet.

Nearly all U.S. pharmacies have signed up to participate. Physicians can join by going to the National ePrescribing Patient Safety Initiative Web site – www.nationaleRx.com. “It takes about 15 to 30 minutes for the doctor and his staff to learn how to use it,” said Nancy W. Dickey, president of the Texas A&M University Health Center. “All they need is access to the Web.”

The system utilizes proven safeguards for patient safety, including crosschecking prescriptions to ensure that they don’t interact with medications the patient is already receiving.

The coalition includes Aetna, Allscripts, Cisco Systems, Dell, Google, Microsoft, Sprint Nextel, SureScripts and Wellpoint.

Making EMRs transportable

It is estimated that about 70 million Americans have personal health records through their health insurers, but there are no compatibility standards for the various systems. Now the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association of America and America’s Health Insurance Plans have developed standards that will help to make health records transportable to almost any health insurance company. For details, click here.

Annals study examines health literacy

Low literacy levels and a greater number of prescription medications are independently associated with misunderstanding prescription label instructions, according to a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Researchers interviewed nearly 400 English-speaking adults at three clinics in Louisiana, Michigan and Illinois, and measured how well they understood instructions on five labels. Click here to read their findings.

‘Report cards’ set stage for P4P

As the government and health insurance companies place more emphasis on physician pay-for-performance initiatives, a quality-improvement group in Kansas City has released “report cards” for 676 primary-care doctors. The results are troubling: About a third of their diabetes patients did not receive adequate cholesterol screenings, and two-thirds were not monitored for kidney disease, according to the Kansas City Star.

Medicare payments will soon rise by 1.5 percent for physicians who report data on 16 quality measures, such as how they treat certain chronic diseases. More details.

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