Health IT

Surescripts expands e-prescribing reach to long-term care

E-prescribing connectivity network Surescripts has entered the market for long-term care by announcing a deal with Friday announced a deal with eldercare health IT vendor PointClickCare.

Noticing that people in nursing homes and rehab facilities also need prescription drugs, e-prescribing connectivity network Surescripts has entered the market for long-term care. Arlington, Va.-based Surescripts on Friday announced a deal with PointClickCare, a Canadian vendor offering a cloud platform for managing eldercare to address a glaring deficiency in health IT adoption.

According to Surescripts, just 3 percent of prescriptions in long-term care environments are sent electronically. That compares to a 57 percent e-prescribing rate for new and renewal orders in the general population that the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology reported for 2013.

Until November, long-term care facilities participating in Medicare were exempt from a rule that requires other providers to follow the National Council for Prescription Drug Programs (NCPDP) SCRIPT standard for e-prescribing.

“Senior care plays an important role in the healthcare ecosystem and PointClickCare is dedicated to connecting our customers to support quality care and collaboration among health care partners,” PointClickCare CTO Dave Wessinger said in a Surescripts press release. “Together with Surescripts, we will be able to provide our customers with the tools they need to help reduce transcription errors, improve workflows between health care partners, as well as provide them with the decision support they require to effectively do their job.”

Because old people are people, too.

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