In July 2006, study by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences reported
1.5 million U.S. residents are injured each year, about 800,000 adverse drug reactions, occur annually at U.S. long-term health care facilities at a cost to hospitals of $3.5 billion a year, and more than 7,000 killed because of prescription errors. According to the Institute of Medicine, if a prescription is tied in with an electronic health record, it will be easier for clinincians to check it against a patient's record for allergies and potential drug interactions. The report recommends that all prescribers and pharmacies use e-prescriptions (electronic prescriptions) by 2010.
In January 2006, a coalition of technology vendors (Dell, Cisco Systems, Allscripts, Sure Scripts, Spring Nextel Incorporated, and Google. Content sponsors: Fujitsue Computers of America, Microsoft, Spring and Wolters Kluwer Health are also partners in the e-prescribing coalition.), and three major insurance's (Aetna, Wellpoint and Horizon Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Jersey.) formed a $100 million alliance project, provide free electronic prescribing services to every physician in the United States. The Web-based prescription system, called The National ePrescribing Patient Safety InititativeSM (NEPSISM) is designed to offer physicians and health care workers many benefits, and security features: Prevents Medication errors often caused by illegible handwritten paper prescriptions. Eliminate handoff errors, occurs when a patient moves from a hospital to a doctor. System quickly generates a simple, safe, and secure electronic prescriptions that can be send computer-to-computer or via electronic fax to 55,000 retail pharmacies (Ninety-five percent of all U.S. pharmacies - via SureScripts.) The capability NEPSISM provides physicians instantly check for potential harmful interactions with a patient's other medications, using a real-time complete medication database provided by Wolters Kluwer Health. Offers physicians, targeted health related information for themselves or patients using a custom search engine designed by Google. Also, real-time notification of insurance fornmulary status from leading payers, plans and pharmacy benefit programs. Regarding security features: NEPSISM provides security against patient information from being stolen, even if a physician's computer or phone is stolen. The patient information is stored on remote servers in a secure location. Also, provides multiple redundant layers of security including firewall, encryption, intrusion detection, spyware and anti - virus program.
The NEPSISM aim: Coax physicians and pharmacies to use this free Web-based prescription system, contrary to current e-prescribing system which cost physicians money (About one-fifth of doctors in the USA paid to enroll) to join. Designed to appeal to physicians in solo practice, small groups or healthcare provider with legal authority to prescribe medications, and requires no download, no new hardware, and minimal training. Allscripts and other technology partners of NEPSISM, will not be make money initially, but the vendors see business opportunities down the road, when full featured e-health records are in place. Dr. Nancy Dickey, former president of the American Medical Association said: "Prescribing a way to improve patient safety." New Gingrich, former U.S. representative and founder of the Center for Health Transformation said: "It is clear fact a paper prescription is dangerous."
In 2003, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts established an e-prescription system, attributed to savings of 3 to 3.5 percent of prescriptions. The system defaults to provide physicians the option of lower cost preferred or generic drugs. In 2005, the Massachusetts Blue Cross and Blue shield handled 2.6 million e-prescriptions and more than 2.2 million in the first half of 2006. In 2006, Georgia states Board of Pharmacy regulations legalized electronic prescriptions and became the 47th state to permit electronic prescriptions. Since September 2006, only states that still do not permit e-prescriptions are Alaska, South Carolina, West Virginia, and Washington, D.C. (according to Health Data Management 9/22/06).
Physicians interested to register for NEPSISM program can visit the website, http.//www.NationaleRx.com. The national deployment of this system expected to begin sometime in February 2007. The coalitions health benefits sponsors will provide a range of incentives to physicians in their network to join in the use of electronic prescribing technology (NEPSISM).