RxHub Supports New Hampshire ePrescribing Initiative
RxHub National Patient Health Information Network provides critical decision support data for medication therapy management and electronic prescribing at the point of care
October 10, 2007 - ST. PAUL, Minn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--RxHub® today announced support for New Hampshire's new initiative to provide health care clinicians with the ability to ePrescribe statewide, which was unveiled at a press conference today by Governor John Lynch and Dr. Philip Boulter of the New Hampshire Citizens Health Initiative.
"Moving to electronic prescriptions is an important step forward in improving health care efficiency, controlling costs, reducing medical errors and increasing patient safety." Gov. Lynch said. "New Hampshire is making real progress in ensuring all of our health care providers have the capability of prescribing medication electronically."
The NH Citizens Health Initiative is a health care collaborative effort that seeks to create a system of care that promotes improved health status and outcomes, assured outcomes, and care that is accessible affordable, effective and safe. "Probably the most significant development over the last year is the technology infrastructure, or ePrescribing hub if you will, that is pretty much in place thanks to partners including RxHub." Stated Dr. Boulter.
Tom Groom, Senior Vice President of Business Development for RxHub, attended the program's kickoff meeting and complimented the progress made on the state's ePrescribing initiative. "We applaud the leadership provided by Governor Lynch and the effectiveness of the Citizens Health Initiative. RxHub is proud to provide authorized physicians in New Hampshire with critical real-time patient prescription data that can indicate clinically appropriate and cost effective prescription options at the point of care," stated Groom.
Last year the Institute of Medicine admonished all physicians to begin using ePrescribing in order to prevent the 1.5 million medication errors that occur each year. ePrescribing is perhaps the most effective and underutilized tool that American healthcare offers to improve patient safety, reduce costs and eliminate wasteful paperwork. By connecting authorized physicians electronically to their patient's health records, it empowers physicians to know three things vital to patient safety and drug affordability:
1. ePrescribing informs physicians if a drug being prescribed would interact harmfully with other drugs - including those prescribed by other doctors - that a patient is already taking;
2. ePrescribing shows physicians and patients the full range of clinically safe drug and pharmacy choices available so that, together, they can make the most effective and affordable choice on a case-by-case basis;
3. ePrescribing eliminates illegible handwritten prescriptions that pharmacists and others can so easily misinterpret, often with unfortunate results.
"No doctor can possibly know the potential side effects with all of these combinations, and patients do not always tell all their doctors all the medications they take," Gov. Lynch said. "With e-prescribing, physicians and their office staffs will benefit from access to online information about potential hazardous drug-to-drug interactions and drug allergy reactions, making it easier to prescribe the right drug, with the proper dosage, the first time."
RxHub is a universal ePrescribing solution for the nation. The RxHub National Health Information NetworkT connects authorized physicians and pharmacists to critical prescription information for consenting patients at the point of care. This information enables clinicians to effectively manage the patients' use of medications and counsel patients on safe and affordable choices before prescriptions are electronically transmitted to retail and mail order pharmacies. RxHub is contracted to provide vital patient-specific prescription information for more than 200 million Americans - representing over 90% of the commercially covered lives in the United States.
About NH Citizens Health Initiative
The NH Citizens Health Initiative is a health care collaborative effort that seeks to create a system of care that promotes health, where quality is assured, and care is accessible affordable, effective and safe. The initiative brings together a broad cross section of citizen representatives, joined by businesses, medical providers, and community agencies in an ongoing, goal-oriented effort to implement a comprehensive health care plan for our state.
About RxHub LLC
RxHub® (www.rxhub.net) manages the RxHub National Patient Health Information NetworkT which electronically routes up-to-date patient-specific medication history and prescription benefit information to caregivers at every point of care. Our end-to-end solution enables physicians to prescribe the most clinically appropriate and cost effective prescription and send it electronically to the patient's pharmacy of choice. Operating as a cost recovery business model, RxHub partners with stakeholders in the prescribing industry to improve patient safety, increase workflow efficiency and reduce the overall cost of health care delivery. For more information on RxHub Certified Partners, please visit: http://www.rxhub.net/partners.html.
Contacts
RxHub, LLC
Chris Van Horrick, 651-855-3078
Chris.vanhorrick@rxhub.net
