Meghan E Gabriel1, Michael F Furukawa, Varun Vaidya. 1. Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, US Department of Health and Human Services, 200 Independence Ave, S.W. Washington, DC 20201. E-mail: Meghan.Gabriel@hhs.gov.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to describe the growth in provider (physician, nurse practitioner, and physician assistant) adoption of e-prescribing and the growth in pharmacies actively accepting e-prescriptions using nationally representative data from December 2008 to December 2012. Additionally, this study explored e-prescribing adoption variation by urban and rural counties. STUDY DESIGN: Descriptive analysis of nationally representative, transactional e-prescribing data. METHODS: Data for this analysis were from Surescripts. Surescripts is a leading e-prescription network utilized by a majority of all chain, franchise, or independently owned pharmacies in the United States routing prescriptions for more than 240 million patients through their network. RESULTS: The total number of prescribers, including physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants e-prescribing via an electronic health record (EHR) on the Surescripts network has increased from 7% to 54%. Additionally, the number of pharmacies actively accepting e-prescriptions is 94%. These increases in pharmacies actively accepting e-prescriptions and the provider's eprescribing mirror the increase in the volume of e-prescriptions sent on the Surescripts network. CONCLUSIONS: This analysis shows that the vast majority of pharmacies in the United States are able to accept e-prescriptions and over half of providers are e-prescribing via an EHR.
OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to describe the growth in provider (physician, nurse practitioner, and physician assistant) adoption of e-prescribing and the growth in pharmacies actively accepting e-prescriptions using nationally representative data from December 2008 to December 2012. Additionally, this study explored e-prescribing adoption variation by urban and rural counties. STUDY DESIGN: Descriptive analysis of nationally representative, transactional e-prescribing data. METHODS: Data for this analysis were from Surescripts. Surescripts is a leading e-prescription network utilized by a majority of all chain, franchise, or independently owned pharmacies in the United States routing prescriptions for more than 240 million patients through their network. RESULTS: The total number of prescribers, including physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants e-prescribing via an electronic health record (EHR) on the Surescripts network has increased from 7% to 54%. Additionally, the number of pharmacies actively accepting e-prescriptions is 94%. These increases in pharmacies actively accepting e-prescriptions and the provider's eprescribing mirror the increase in the volume of e-prescriptions sent on the Surescripts network. CONCLUSIONS: This analysis shows that the vast majority of pharmacies in the United States are able to accept e-prescriptions and over half of providers are e-prescribing via an EHR.
Authors: Robert T Adsit; Bradley M Fox; Thanos Tsiolis; Carolyn Ogland; Michelle Simerson; Linda M Vind; Sean M Bell; Amy D Skora; Timothy B Baker; Michael C Fiore Journal: Transl Behav Med Date: 2014-09 Impact factor: 3.046