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Surescripts
GoldRx™ Certification Places Emphasis on EMR and E-Prescribing Vendor Performance in Connecting Physicians and Pharmacists Electronically for Safer, More Efficient Patient Care
NEW ORLEANS, HIMSS Conference - Feb. 27, 2007 - SureScripts, operator of the Pharmacy Health Information Exchange™, announced today that six physician technology vendors have achieved its new GoldRx certification status. These companies - Allscripts, ChartConnect, DrFirst, NextGen, RelayHealth and Zix - have each gone beyond SureScripts baseline product certification to establish a proven track record in pharmacy interoperability.
"SureScripts and many health IT experts believe that the electronic link between a physician and a pharmacist is the most critical and the most achievable first step toward broader healthcare interoperability," said Kevin Hutchinson, president and CEO of SureScripts. "For physicians making an investment in the safety of their patients, the efficiency of their practice and the quality of their own clinical decision making, GoldRx certification helps them know which software vendors are actually delivering on pharmacy interoperability and other critical levels of automation. We congratulate these six vendors on taking the necessary steps to achieve GoldRx certification."
GoldRx certification status signals that physician software and service providers have met a number of benchmarks for "live" customer deployments - with new physician users and within a technology provider's existing install base. All these electronic medical record (EMR) and e-prescribing solutions have completed mandatory testing and are certified to receive medication history (from community pharmacy) and formulary and eligibility information (from SureScripts certified payers and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs)).
SureScripts presented GoldRx certification to each of the six vendors today during a press conference featuring healthcare leaders from across the nation at the annual Health Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) conference in New Orleans.
Products Certified GoldRx for 2007
Allscripts - TouchWorks™ EHR (www.allscripts.com)
ChartConnect - ChartConnect EMR (www.chartconnect.com)
DrFirst - Rcopia (www.drfirst.com)
NextGen - NextGen EMR (www.nextgen.com)
RelayHealth - eScript™ (www.relayhealth.com)
Zix - PocketScript® (www.zixcorp.com)
Over the past two years, SureScripts has tested and certified the applications of every major e-prescribing and electronic medical record (EMR) vendor in the U.S. More than 60 physician technology solutions - representing over 150,000 existing physician users - are certified by SureScripts to enable their software and services to exchange prescription information with local pharmacies. Clinics and physicians that use SureScripts Certified Solutions™ have the ability to electronically connect to pharmacies in their community and, as a result, have an unprecedented ability to improve the prescribing process.
Today, however, the vast majority of these estimated 150,000 physician users have not taken the necessary action to take advantage of pharmacy interoperability.
In many cases, physicians are unaware that electronic pharmacy access is available to them, as they are still using older versions of their vendors' software (i.e., versions that have no electronic pharmacy connection). The result: New prescriptions are sent and received by fax; refill requests are processed by phone and fax; patients' medication histories from community pharmacies are unavailable to physicians; and patients' formulary and eligibility information is not as complete as it could be. GoldRx certification gives special status to those vendors that find this situation unacceptable - and that are meeting SureScripts' criteria to do something about it.
The criteria for SureScripts GoldRx certification status go beyond product compliance with technical standards. GoldRx certification is guided by benchmarks for vendor performance across a number of categories:
• Customer Education - GoldRx certified companies must raise awareness among their physician customers
of the opportunity to communicate new prescription and refill information with pharmacists electronically.
• Proven Pharmacy Interoperability - GoldRx certified companies must make pharmacy interoperability part of every new client installation.
• Advanced Medication Management - GoldRx certified vendors must enable their applications to receive medication history from community pharmacies, as well as formulary/eligibility services from the payers and
PBMs certified by SureScripts.
• Workflow Enhancements - An organization receiving GoldRx product certification has committed to meeting specific service-level requirements related to the operations of the Pharmacy Health Information Exchange.
• Demonstrable Expertise- GoldRx certified vendors must prove experience with the process of electronic prescribing by meeting benchmarks for adding new "active" prescribers.
Raising the Bar Again in 2007
SureScripts also announced today an additional certification status for vendors that further demonstrate advanced abilities to integrate pharmacy interoperability into their clinical solutions. SureScripts PlatinumRx™ certification is
now available to those vendors willing to commit to the highest standards for pharmacy interoperability. PlatinumRx certification challenges vendors to engage in significantly broader communications and customer outreach, to convert larger shares of physician install bases, to meet benchmarks for the deployment of new services available through the Pharmacy Health Information Exchange, and to continue to evolve application workflow based on feedback and best practices from physicians at hundreds of clinics around the country.
Tracking a Vendor's Certification Status
Physicians and health IT industry watchers can track the status of a vendor's baseline, GoldRx and PlatinumRx certifications at www.surescripts.com/certified. Announcements will be made throughout 2007 as additional vendors are certified.
About SureScripts
Founded by the pharmacy industry in 2001, SureScripts ® operates the Pharmacy Health Information Exchange ™, which facilitates the secure electronic transmission of prescription information between physicians and pharmacists and provides access to lifesaving information about patients during emergencies or routine care. Today, more than 95 percent of all pharmacies and all major physician technology vendors in the United States are certified on the Pharmacy Health Information Exchange. More information about SureScripts is available at www.surescripts.com.
