Celebrating leaders in performance, innovation and accuracy

In 2023, there were over 2.5 billion e-prescriptions filled, an 5.6% increase from the prior year. Simply adopting E-Prescribing aids prescription accuracy and improves patient safety by presenting prescriptions in a clear, consistent format with less room for ambiguity and human error than handwritten prescriptions. But there's more work to be done. We now must turn our attention to the quality, accuracy and consumability of prescription data by ensuring electronic transactions are flawlessly executed—an area which has room for improvement.

For example, more than 1 in 10 e-prescriptions contains patient directions with a quality issue, which has the potential to cause confusion or workflow disruption at the pharmacy. Surescripts is dedicated to helping improve the accuracy of electronic prescriptions to reduce the need for manual intervention and prescription delays. Our Performance Optimization program for Prescription Accuracy & Optimization is focused on working with customers from across the Surescripts Network Alliance to measure and continuously improve prescription completeness, integrity and performance. The Surescripts White Coat Award recognizes Surescripts Network Alliance participants' commitment to improving healthcare outcomes through prescription accuracy and measurable innovation that drives the network forward.

Since 2016, pharmacies, health systems, electronic health records (EHR) vendors and pharmacy technology vendors across the Surescripts Network Alliance® have worked together to improve e-prescription accuracy. In 2021, the Surescripts Network Alliance saw a 10% increase in the aggregated Quality Index Score for electronic prescriptions across the network. As a result, physicians and pharmacists spent less time exchanging phone calls and faxes to clarify prescriber intent. And the best part: this increased accuracy helped patients get the safe, effective care they deserve.

The following Surescripts Network Alliance participants are eligible for the 2024 Surescripts White Coat Award:

• Electronic health records vendors that contract directly with Surescripts, serve multiple provider groups and use approved compendia.
• Health systems that contract directly with Surescripts.
• Retail & mail-order pharmacies and pharmacy tech vendors that maintain their own pharmacy software, contract directly with Surescripts.

Eligible organizations will automatically be considered for the award based on data captured by Surescripts Sentinel (which is used to calculate each organization's Quality Index Score). No submission or application is required.

With input from hundreds of prescribers, pharmacists, technology vendors and drug compendia, Surescripts has identified and validated 12 of the most impactful problems affecting e-prescription accuracy. The Performance Optimization program is focused on expanding the use and improving the performance of:

• Drug Description
• Drug Identification
• Sig (patient directions)
• Quantity Unit of Measure
• Days’ Supply
• Patient Notes
• Duplicate prescription reduction
• RxChange
• CancelRx
• Electronic Prescribing for Controlled Substances (EPCS)
• Provider & pharmacy directory integrity
• Diagnosis Code

Surescripts will evaluate the data available in Sentinel to determine finalists and winners.

This year, we will celebrate winners in three award categories: Highest Performance, RxChange Champion and Innovation.

1. Highest Performance: This award measures best prescription performance as of August 1, 2024, based on Surescripts Quality Index Score which is a measure of overall prescription performance. 
2. RxChange Champion: This award celebrate customers for investing time and effort in implementing projects and products to drive RxChange. The winner will be selected  and the White Coat Advisory Board.
3. Innovation: This award recognizes organizations pursuing innovation towards optimizing performance. Winners will be nominated internally by Surescripts based on various factors and selected by the White Coat Advisory Board.

Winners will be selected in three competition segments. Each competition segment contains tiers based on transaction volume.

For the Highest Performance Award category, one organization will be named a winner in each tier.

For the RxChange Champion Award category, one organization will be named a winner.

For the Innovation Award category, one organization will be named a winner.

Electronic Health Records Vendors

• Tier 1: Average more than 2 million monthly NewRx transactions
• Tier 2: Average up to 2 million monthly NewRx transactions

Health System

• Average more than 10,000 monthly NewRx transactions

Pharmacies and Pharmacy Tech Vendors

• Tier 1: Retail/technology vendors averaging more than 500,000 monthly RxRenewal requests
• Tier 2: Retail/technology vendors averaging up to 500,000 monthly RxRenewal requests
• Tier 3: Mail-order pharmacies  

Each winning organization will receive:

• Plaque and letter of recognition
• Winner emblem, press release template and social media package for use in marketing materials
• Recognition during the Surescripts Network Alliance Forum
• Opportunity to be named in a Surescripts news release, social media, blog post, webinar or other event