Defining the Perfect Prescription and Achieving it in Four Steps

“A perfect prescription is a decision made by a physician, a pharmacist and a patient together.”—Stacy Ward-Charlerie, PharmD, Clinical Informatics Pharmacist and Data Manager

Achieving perfect prescriptions should be a goal for the healthcare industry. It’s a top priority and part of our purpose at Surescripts, and we’re making progress in close collaboration with a diverse group of participants from across the Surescripts Network Alliance.

Several times each day, prescribers and pharmacists are forced to leave their workflow to manually fix a range of prescribing issues, from ambiguous prescriber intent to much higher than expected out-of-pocket costs at the pharmacy.

These interruptions quickly add up to millions or even billions in costs, from avoidable administrative burdens to abandoned prescriptions and medication non-adherence, which negatively impacts patient safety and costs an estimated $300 billion annually, according to the New England Health Institute.

While zero-error prescribing may seem unattainable, it’s well within our reach. But it will take the entire industry’s support, the implementation of a few must-haves and the widespread adoption of best practices to get there.

In a new position paper, The Perfect E-Prescription: Obstacles and Opportunities on the Path to Higher Quality and Lower Costs, Stacy Ward-Charlerie, a pharmacist and dedicated member of our Critical Performance Improvement team, explores exactly what’s needed to make safe and accurate prescriptions our everyday reality and the benefits every facet of healthcare—especially patients—will gain as a result. She explains, “The perfect prescription enhances both the economics and the experience of care for all involved, especially the patient who waits less for prescriptions, gets the pharmacist’s full attention and maximizes their coverage benefits.”

Read the paper here, and stay tuned for more updates on the quest to perfect e-prescribing.