Working Behind the Scenes to Keep the Focus on the Patient

During a recent Tate Chronicles episode, Surescripts VP and Chief Medical Information Officer Andrew Mellin, MD, MBA, described Surescripts work as "in the background" more than once. But as Andrew and the host's conversation showed, Surescripts doesn't need the spotlight to make a big difference.

Our numbers speak volumes: we have nearly two million prescribers on our network who sent over 19 billion transactions to support 300 million patients last year. With adoption well on its way, we've turned our attention to the quality, accuracy and consumability of prescription data by ensuring electronic transactions are flawlessly executed.

As Andrew shares on the show, Surescripts tracks e-prescription accuracy and celebrates the efforts of pharmacies, health systems, electronic health records (EHR) vendors and pharmacy technology vendors across the Surescripts Network Alliance® to improve e-prescription accuracy. Surescripts has seen an 80% improvement in the accuracy of electronic prescriptions across the network since 2016.

"Our goal here is by improving that accuracy, we are making sure that provider and prescriber's intent is clearly communicated, so there are no phone calls," Andrew shared. "And we also help keep the pharmacist in their workflow, so they don't have to spend extra time getting that prescription safely to the patient."

For some, these efforts and improvements are behind the scenes, but Andrew knows it’s making a difference. "I'm really proud of this work, and it's one of those sorts of programs that it's not necessarily obvious to prescribers or even pharmacies," Andrew explained. "But if they reflect back over the years, they realize they're getting fewer faxes and phone calls for clarifications. Pharmacists are realizing it's taking less time to move a prescription through and get it safely dispensed to the patient.”

It’s not just about making providers’ jobs easier, it’s also a better experience for patients. Customers can arrive at the pharmacy feeling confident that they’ll leave with their prescription. And getting patients their medications quickly and easily also improves medication adherence.

Beyond helping make prescribers' lives easier, Andrew and the host, Jim Tate, talked about Surescripts efforts to help bridge information gaps between front-line providers and public health officials while offering tech-based solutions to support an overburdened healthcare system.

Listen to the podcast to hear their conversation and learn more about how together, we're making big gains in prescription accuracy.