Using PrescribeIT Makes Prescribing Easier And More Convenient
As a family physician you have a lot of responsibilities.
One of which involves writing, and refilling prescriptions for your patients.
This task, in and of itself, is simple enough, however, there’s often much more to it.
You’re dealing with patients calling in to get a refill, or the pharmacy looking for clarity, or wanting to make a substitution.
Managing all of this can be time consuming and frustrating – but there is a better way.
Would you like to take back the time and reduce frustration in your practice?
PrescribeIT® might be the solution you’ve been waiting for.
PrescribeIT® makes prescribing easier and more convenient for Canadians, prescribers, and pharmacists. It also improves patient safety and health outcomes and protects patient privacy.
A project of the Canada Health Infoway initiative, which aims to help bring healthcare into a digital world, so that physicians can better connect with patients and pharmacies.
Benefits of Using PrescribeIT Digital Prescriptions
Paper and fax-based prescriptions are outdated, inefficient, and costly – going digital can help you reclaim your valuable time and money.
Prescribe IT® can help reduce errors in prescriptions, due to lack of legibility, and eliminate patients calling to have a script re-done because they’ve lost it.
Some of the benefits to managing prescriptions digitally using Prescribe IT® Include:
- The ability to electronically generate, accept, renew, and cancel prescriptions directly from your electronic medical records (EMR) at no additional cost
- Avoid errors which can arise with fax transmissions
- Offers secure transmission from your office to the pharmacy – email isn’t secure, and you never know who is on the other side of a fax machine
- Streamlined system for pharmacies to request refills and renewals
- Enhanced patient safety and privacy
All of these benefits can be implemented with minimal changes to your current workflow processes.
Paper Prescriptions Are Inefficient
Did you that over 600 million prescriptions dispensed in Canada annually?
At a recent in-service with the Edmonton and District Clinic Managers Association, guest speaker Joelle Withers, Manager, Prescriber Relations & Deployment, Canada Health Infoway revealed the following statistics about prescriptions in Canada:
- Nine percent are narcotics or another controlled drug
- Over forty percent of prescriptions are handwritten
- Thirty five percent of prescriptions are computer generated and taken to the pharmacy in person
- Over four million Canadians have admitted to losing or damaging a prescription, including:
- 415,000 prescriptions have taken a spin in the wash cycle
- 140,000 prescriptions decided to go puddle jumping in the rain
- 88,000 of those prescriptions were eaten by dogs (tell this to every teacher who has heard the “my dog ate my homework excuse)
As a result of lost or damage prescriptions, over seven hundred thousand Canadians have decided to go without their medications, rather than calling to have a new one issued.
Finally, as many as seventy eight percent of Canadians prefer to go directly to the pharmacy right after receiving their prescription to pick up their medication.
Workflow Efficiencies
Using Prescribe IT® in your practice, allows you to electronically send your patients prescriptions directly to the pharmacy of their choice.
This will create efficiencies and save you time:
- No more lost prescriptions, no more time wasted needing to redo paperwork.
- No more telephone or fax tag with pharmacies – Instead, Prescribe IT® offers secure physician to pharmacy messaging.
- Integration into the patient record in your EMR – you can view that the prescription is dispensed.
- Patients select the pharmacy of their choice – and arrive to pick up the prescription with no waiting to drop-off and pick-up delay.
- Patients who prefer a paper copy of their prescription still have this option
- Prescribe IT® is approved for use with the Triplicate Prescription program.
Which Pharmacies Accept PrescribeIT?
Many pharmacies have been approved to participate in PrescribeIT including Rexall, Guardian, IDA, Shoppers, and Safeway.
I’m Ready To Try Prescribe IT In My Practice – What’s Next?
Are you ready to bring Prescribe IT® into your practice?
Let’s take a look at how to get started.
I’m Opening A New Clinic
If you’re opening a new clinic and want to use Prescribe IT®, you’ll need to follow the following steps:
- Prepare your Privacy Impact Assessment which describes your organization management system and your selected electronic medical records (EMR) solution.
- PrescribeIT integration is currently available with the following EMR solutions: Telus Medaccess, Microquest Healthquest, QHR Accuro (soon).
- Submit your application of interest to PrescribeIT now to be ready to implement when your Privacy Impact Assessment is accepted by the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (OIPC).
- Once your application is approved, Canada Health Infoway will send to you a Privacy Impact Assessment for PrescribeIT that you will review, edit if necessary, and submit to the OIPC.
I Have An Existing Clinic
You can apply to Canada Health Infoway to start using PrescribeIT® in your current clinic, if
- You are using one of the accepted EMR vendors, and
- You have an accepted Privacy Impact Assessment for your EMR implementation.
After your application submission, Canada Health Infoway will send to you a Privacy Impact Assessment for PrescribeIT that you will review, edit if necessary, and submit to the OIPC.
Get Started with Prescribe IT® Today
Are you ready to do away with paper prescriptions?
Tired of playing phone tag with the pharmacy, or having to redo paperwork due to patients losing paperwork?
To get started with PrescribeIT®, please fill out an application of interest form HERE
Do You Need A Privacy Impact Assessment?
If you’re looking for assistance with your Privacy Impact Assessment, we’re here to help you.
Contact Information Managers today!
PrescribeIT® is registered by Canada Health Infoway. Used with permission.