National Council Magazine - Winter 2009 - 62

E-Prescribing Continued from page 56 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. Working collaboratively with health plans, health systems, technology vendors, and health policy leaders, SureScripts is committed to improving the safety, efﬁciency, and quality of the prescribing process. The National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare has gies partnered with Netsmart Technologies to bring e prescribing e-prescribing oScriber solutions to members through InfoScriber — ™ a SureScripts Certiﬁed Solution.™ InfoScriber g is a secure, Web-based prescribing and medication management system e that can be operated stand alone e or integrated with existing practice s. management and clinical systems. Learn more at www.TheNationalCouncil.org (Click on ouncil.org Resources and Services and E-Prescribing). Electronic prescribing and effective medication management can facilitate this sharing of information between primary care and behavioral health providers, including consideration of the unique and differing medication requirements in behavioral health. The Pharmacy Health Information Exchange Network, operated by SureScripts-RxHub, offers certiﬁcation in transmitting prescriptions electronically. It further provides certiﬁcation of the ability of pharmacies to send and of providers to receive medication data for a given patient, regardless of who prescribed the medications or where they were prescribed. Pharmacy software systems, prescribing software systems, and electronic medical records can be certiﬁed for this functionality. With patient consent, SureScripts-RxHub provides patient medication history information across providers through electronic prescribing and electronic health records that are certiﬁed for the medication history service. The service is made possible by SureScripts-RxHub’s ability to securely access and aggregate patient medication history data from community pharmacies and pharmacy beneﬁt managers. Prescribers who can access critical information about their patients’ current and past medications from pharmacy beneﬁt managers and community pharmacies are better informed about patients’ potential medication issues and can improve safety and quality. If you are considering implementing an e-prescribing system, note that not all medications may be available for review. For example, if a patient refuses to allow a pharmacy to share his or her data, the information cannot be sent. And if a patient refuses to allow a provider to view the data, the information cannot be received. In addition, federal laws prohibit some medication information from being shared, and some states have passed laws limiting the data that can be shared. E-prescribing and medication management will play an increasing role in the integration of behavioral health and primary care, boosted by ﬁnancial incentives such as those in recent Medicare legisla- tion and anticipated Medicaid incentives. By using the technology available through e-prescribing and electronic health records, and by asking your consumers and their caregivers about medications, you will be in a much better position to know how they are being treated across the continuum of care and can provide the safest possible care. Charles Klein has more than 18 years experience in the behavioral health ﬁeld directing inpatient and outpatient child, adolescent, and adult programs as well as consulting in areas such as clinical documentation, performance improvement, and organizational development. He has developed and implemented clinical outcomes measurement systems and directed the start-up of many behavioral health day treatment programs for persons with serious and persistent mental illnesses. At Netsmart Technologies, Klein works in the area of clinical services, participating in customer workﬂow issues, clinical gap analyses, and prescription and medication management processes. VOICES k “Mental health has been late to the dance in terms of looking at the connections between mental health and physical health. It may be moot what you’re doing for mental health needs if people are dying so early from physical causes.” Bob Glover, Director of NASMHPD, in TIME Magazine, December 3, 2008 58 / NATIONAL COUNCIL MAGAZINE • WINTER 2009
National Council Magazine - Winter 2009

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of National Council Magazine - Winter 2009
