XLDent Prescribes with DoseSpot

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Case Study:

XLDent™ began researching integration of an e-Prescribing solution when it was mandated in Minnesota. However, this was not the only reason they considered adding e-Prescribing.  XLDent™ had already developed a written prescription module within their software that could be fed to the Doctor Portal, but it did not contain the patient’s entire prescription history. The company was looking for a solution that could offer dentists a comprehensive view of a patient’s medication history from a mobile device, such as their smartphone when away from the office. Their interest was also to include a clinical decision support tool that would help clinicians improve patient outcomes.

Solution:

XLDentâ„¢ chose DoseSpot because of the ease of integration, its easy-to-use user interface, and the fact that it met all of their feature criteria. “The development team at DoseSpot was and continues to be great to work with!” said Dawn Christodoulou, President of XLDent. “They are very engaged and responsive to our needs.”

Doctors Utilize Mobile Devices

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It’s no surprise that doctors are using mobile devices more than ever in the workplace. Pagers have long been replaced by iPhones and tablets, providing doctors with on the go access to:

• Patient medical information and history
• e-Prescribing software including drug-drug and drug-allergy interaction checking
• Email
• Medical references including image libraries
• Research resources; and
• A nearly unlimited number of applications courtesy of the Apple App Store

The latest in medical software advancements include telehealth capabilities, allowing doctors to visit with their patients via video conferencing software in addition to phone and email communication. Doctors can also connect with fellow healthcare professionals on their mobile device to discuss a patient encounter or field a question with the click of a button.

Adoption of health information technology continues to grow as organizations go for Meaningful Use certification. A 2013 survey fielded by Deloitte revealed that 43 percent of physicians currently use smartphones or tablets to access electronic health records, e-Prescribing and applications for communicating with other health care professionals. Additionally, 73 percent of physicians surveyed believe that health information technology will improve the quality of long term care provided.

Last year was a big year for adoption of mobile technology in healthcare but 2014 is slated to be the biggest yet. Stay tuned for an upcoming whitepaper on the current telehealth market plus the latest in industry trends and utilization.  Pre-register to receive the telehealth whitepaper at http://www.dosespot.com/telehealth-whitepaper.

‘Twas the night before Christmas

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‘Twas the night before Christmas and here at DoseSpot,
Prescriptions were routed electronically, oh yeah there were a lot.
The doctors were busy providing their patients with care,
In hopes that Meaningful Use certification soon would be there.

The patients were nestled all snug at the clinic,
While visions of not waiting at the pharmacy felt like a gimmick.
The doctor checked for dangerous drug-drug and drug-allergy interactions,
All while giving their patients the utmost attention.

The doctor accessed the patient’s medication history and insurance information,
With a few clicks of a button, avoiding all frustration.
Off to Surescripts the prescriptions went,
Providing the doctor with less office time spent.

So we say to you all as we get back to work,
“Happy e-Prescribing to all, it really is a phenomenal perk!”

CMS Updates Meaningful Use Stages 2 and 3 Timeline

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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced that Meaningful Use Stage 2 will be extended through 2016 and Stage 3 will be delayed until 2017.  In a joint blog post on CMS.gov, Robert Tagalicod (CMS) and Jacob Reider (Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, ONC) explain “the goal of this change is two-fold: first, to allow CMS and ONC to focus efforts on the successful implementation of the enhanced patient engagement, interoperability and health information exchange requirements in Stage 2; and second, to utilize data from Stage 2 participation to inform policy decisions for Stage 3.”

The post highlights a number of benefits to the new timeframe including:

• More analysis of feedback from stakeholders on Stage 2 progress and outcomes;

• More available data on Stage 2 adoption and measure calculations – especially on new patient engagement measures and health information exchange objectives;

• More consideration of potential Stage 3 requirements;

• Additional time for preparation for enhanced Stage 3 requirements;

• Ample time for developers to create and distribute certified EHR technology before Stage 3 begins, and incorporate lessons learned about usability and customization.

To read the announcement in full, visit www.cms.gov/eHealth/ListServ_Stage3Implementation.html.

e-Prescribing Utilization Continues to Increase

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e-Prescribing has been on a steady growth curve for the past decade and a new study by the American Journal of Managed Care reveals it has increased eight-fold over the past five years.  Survey results highlight the percentage of doctors, nurses and PA’s e-Prescribing in the U.S. has increased from seven percent in 2008 to 54 percent in 2012.  Specifically, the number of e-Prescribers increased from 47,000 to 398,000.

From 2008 to 2012, retail pharmacies e-Prescribing on the Surescripts network increased 24 percent to more than 59,000 pharmacies.  According to the Surescripts website, that number has increased further to 64,000 retail pharmacies and six of the largest mail order pharmacies nationwide.

With meaningful use, e-Prescribing utilization is expected to rise even more.  In conclusion, “this study shows positive emerging trends in electronic prescribing by demonstrating accelerated growth in adoption of electronic prescribing at both provider and pharmacy level.  Continuous efforts and focused investments can be expected to diminish most of the barriers to implementation in the future.”

Click here to read the full summary.

Government Shutdown and Impact on HealthIT

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As we enter day three of the government shutdown, below are a few insightful healthIT and e-prescribing related articles that we think are great resources.

Also to keep in mind, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology website and Twitter handle (@ONC_HealthIT) are not being updated at this time.  You can find the Department of Health and Human Services contingency plan here.

Happy reading and keep up the awesome work!

ONC to take hit in government shutdown

‘Should Congress fail to pass legislation to continue funding the federal government, as it appears likely, the Department of Health and Human Services will be forced to furlough more than half of its employees. And the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT would be hit particularly hard.

Of the total 184 on-board staffers at ONC, only four would be retained and charged with handling “orderly phase-down and suspension of operations.”

Indeed, a government shutdown would mean ONC will put on hold its standards and interoperability work, privacy and security policy activities, clinical quality measure development, as well as maintaining the Certified Health IT Product List.’

According to Tom Sullivan, Editor, Government Health IT

What the Government Shutdown means for HealthIT Development

‘Non-essential US government operations are shut down as of last night.  That has some impacts on us in the Health IT Standards development space:

1. You won’t be able to test your CCDA documents or your implementation of the Direct transport.  TTT is down (the DNS name isn’t even found right now).
2. IHE testing supported by NIST will be offline (the servers are being shut down).
3. The Certified Health IT Products List won’t be updated.  It will still function, but you won’t see newly certified products after 9/27.  Certifiers can still operate if they have local copies of test tools.
4. Federal Employees engaged in standards development will not be on HL7 or IHE calls, or responding to e-mails.  You may see SOME e-mails today ensuring an orderly shutdown, but that will be it until things are resolved……..’

According to Keith Boone, Technology Blogger, Standards Architect at GE Healthcare, Director at large for Health Level Seven

Government shutdown could cause ‘chaos’ for ONC, health IT

‘John Halamka, FierceHealthIT Editorial Advisory Board member and CIO at Boston-based Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, passed along an email to FierceHealthIT from one of his employees which said that, because the National Insitute of Standards and Technology is closed, certification of technology systems will be delayed. Document verification efforts, instead, will take place manually, it said.’

‘Meanwhile, FierceHealthIT Editorial Advisory Board member Todd Richardson, vice president and CIO at Wausau, Wis.-based Aspirus, Inc., said he isn’t too worried about the shutdown.”Perhaps I’m a mid-west pundit, but I don’t get too alarmed by all the noise coming out of D.C., and certainly am not about to make any rash decisions about which projects I need to look at stopping or slowing down,” Richardson, also a FierceHealthIT Editorial Advisory Board member, said in an email.’

According to FierceHealthIT

Government Shutdown Halts Health IT

‘The shutdown’s impact on health IT goes much deeper than the lapse in social media activity. It’s also being felt by multiple key ONC programs. For example, the administration of the Certified Health Information Technology Product List (CHPL) has stopped reporting to work. The CHPL maintains a public repository of EHR systems that have been tested and certified to ONC standards. Providers can only use products from this list to qualify for MU and receive payments under the program.

Work on the federally-funded Standards and Interoperability Framework has also ceased. This program is a collaboration of government agencies and private organizations geared toward improving the interoperability of health IT systems. In addition, the ONC will be unable to continue other standards, testing, and policy activities — all of which could have a marked impact on health IT privacy, security, and clinical quality measure development.

Finally, even though MU incentive dollars are still being paid out to providers during the shutdown, a lengthy government standoff could stall provider efforts to meet current Stage 1 and upcoming Stage 2 MU requirements. For example, without continued certification and testing, many health IT systems will remain uncertified, potentially stalling a healthcare provider’s ability to meet MU targets.

While the government shutdown isn’t “halting” health IT, it’s definitely an unwelcome obstacle standing in the way of continued health IT progress. Hopefully, the shutdown is short-lived.’

According to Ken Congdon, editor-in-chief, Healthcare Technology Online

Health Disparities to be Tackled in Meaningful Use Stage 3

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While EHR companies are working to meet Meaningful Use (MU) Stage 2 criteria, industry leaders have been collaborating to develop MU Stage 3 requirements.  Last week, the Consumer Partnership for eHealth published an action plan, Leveraging Meaningful Use to Reduce Health Disparities Plan, to leverage MU Stage 3 requirements to reduce health disparities.

According to Healthcare IT News, the proposed action plan:

1. Recommends that EHRs have the ability to stratify patients’ specific conditions by variables such as race, ethnicity, language, gender identity, sexual orientation, socio-economic status and disability status.
2. Calls for greater use of patient data collected and shared through devices such as smartphones.
3. Emphasizes the need to ensure that electronic health information is effectively communicated to patients, so they are better able to utilize its benefits.

The goal is to address health disparities as part of Stage 3 requirements resulting in improved health outcomes and measurement nationwide.  Notable statistics surrounding disparities highlighted in the action plan include:

• 58 million people ages five and older speak a language other than English at home
• 56 million people live with a disability
• Women account for 50.8 percent of the population
• The U.S. Hispanic population reached 50.5 million, increasing 43 percent from the year 2000 and accounting for over half of the total population increase in the U.S.

Checking For Drug Interactions

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Drug-drug and drug-allergy interaction checks are becoming a new standard in electronic health record and e-Prescribing solutions.  Interaction checks are required for meaningful use and are being used by more physicians every day.

Online drug-interaction checking tools are a great at home resource.  They evaluate both prescription and over the counter medication regimens including vitamins and supplements and flag all interactions in real-time.  As online resources continue to pop up, the latest being from CVS, we compiled a list below of valuable drug interaction tools to jumpstart your search:

• CVS
• Drugs.com
• Healthline
• Medscape
• Walgreens

Health IT in the Greater Boston Area

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DoseSpot is in the healthcare zone along with 9 other awesome health IT companies here in the Greater Boston area. Learn more about what we’re all up to!  

Athenahealth (Watertown, MA): Cloud-based services for EHR, practice management and care coordination.

Claricode (Waltham, MA): Medical software development and application integration services exclusively for the healthcare industry.

CoPatient (Waltham, MA): Web platform to help consumers identify and resolve medical billing errors and overcharges.

DoseSpot (Waltham, MA): Surescripts Certified e-Prescribing platform offering solutions to medical and dental software companies.

Eyenetra (Somerville, MA): Eye care platform enabling on-demand eye testing, remote access to vendors and providers through eye diagnostics on mobile phones.

Ginger.io (Cambridge, MA): Web-based dashboard for researchers and healthcare providers and a mobile phone app for patients.

iMD-soft (Needham, MA): Clinical information systems and EMRs for critical, perioperative and acute care.

iQuartic (Cambridge, MA): EHR analytics for risk profiling, disease management, and quality benchmarking.

QMedic (Cambridge, MA): Passive wearable sensing platform and personal emergency response solution that provides 24/7 connectivity between seniors and remote caregivers.

QuantiaMD (Waltham, MA): Free online community where practicing physicians share practical medicine.

…Congrats to this week’s DoseSpot #TuesdayTweetup winner Michael Planchart, @theEHRGuy.  Stay tuned for next week’s #TuesdayTweetup for another chance to be featured on eprescribing.org.

Meaningful Use: Stage 1 vs. Stage 2

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With Stage 2 right around the corner many EHRs, physicians, dentists, and other ‘eligible professionals’ are seeking guidance. So here it is! Today’s blog post features a Stage 1 vs. Stage 2 Comparison Table for 3 Meaningful Use Core Objectives.

More comparisons are coming…stay tuned!

….Congrats to last week’s DoseSpot #TuesdayTweetup winner @jasmith1437 and runner up @techydoc.

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Stage 1 Objective: CPOE

Use CPOE for medication orders directly entered by any licensed healthcare professional who can enter orders into the medical record per state, local and professional guidelines

Stage 1 Measure: CPOE

More than 30% of unique patients with at least one medication in their medication list seen by the EP have at least one medication order entered using CPOE

Stage 2 Objective: CPOE

Use computerized provider order entry (CPOE) for medication, laboratory and radiology orders directly entered by any licensed healthcare professional who can enter orders into the medical record per state, local and professional guidelines

Stage 2 Measure: CPOE

More than 60% of medication, 30% of laboratory, and 30% of radiology orders created by the EP during the EHR reporting period are recorded using CPOE

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Stage 1 Objective: e-Prescribing

Generate and transmit permissible prescriptions electronically (eRx)

Stage 1 Measure: e-Prescribing

More than 30% of unique patients with at least one medication in their medication list seen by the EP have at least one medication order entered using CPOE

Stage 2 Objective: e-Prescribing

Generate and transmit permissible prescriptions electronically (eRx)

Stage 2 Measure: e-Prescribing

More than 50% of all permissible prescriptions written by the EP are compared to at least one drug formulary and transmitted electronically using Certified EHR Technology

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Stage 1 Objective: Record Demographics

Record demographics: Preferred language, Gender, Race, Ethnicity, Date of birth

Stage 1 Measure: Record Demographics

More than 50% of all unique patients seen by the EP have demographics recorded as structured data

Stage 2 Objective: Record Demographics

Record demographics: Preferred language, Gender, Race, Ethnicity, Date of birth

Stage 2 Measure: Record Demographics

More than 80% of all unique patients seen by the EP have demographics recorded as structured data

Source: http://go.cms.gov/12r3Gsc