Upper Cumberland First to Receive Electronic Prescribing Training
Thursday, January 08, 2009 | 03:08am
NASHVILLE – Tennessee’s Office of e-Health Initiatives will help health care providers in the upper Cumberland region get ready to issue patient prescriptions electronically as it hosts the first in a series of statewide electronic prescribing training sessions next week in Cookeville.
The training sessions will be from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., CST, on Tuesday, Jan. 13, and from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m., CST, on Wednesday, Jan. 14 at Cookeville Regional Medical Center, 142 West 5th St., in Cookeville.
Electronic prescribing is the secure, electronic transmission, from a medical provider’s computer to a pharmacist’s computer, of a patient’s prescription that needs to be filled or re-filled.
“Tennessee is moving rapidly from early adoption to mainstream adoption of electronic prescribing,” said Governor Phil Bredesen. “To ensure that we continue to move forward, we must educate both providers and patients as to how electronic prescribing will improve health care costs, delivery and safety.”
During the training session, attendees will learn: 1) How electronic prescribing benefits providers, pharmacies and patients; 2) How to access the secure Tennessee e-Health Network; and 3) How to adopt electronic prescribing into their everyday workflow for better patient care.
The Office of e-Health Initiatives has invited health care providers from Clay, Cumberland, Fentress, Jackson, Overton, Pickett, Smith, Van Buren, Warren and White counties to the training sessions.
Invited attendees are approved recipients of the Office of e-Health Initiatives’ physician connectivity grants. In order to receive the grants, applicants must agree to electronically prescribe for two years. The Office of e-Health Initiatives approved 1,747 health care providers in Tennessee to be grant recipients in 2008.
The Office of e-Health Initiatives has planned a total of 16 electronic prescribing training sessions for 2009, to be held across the state.
The number of active electronic prescribers in Tennessee stands at 1,792, up 127 percent from 2007 and 749 percent from 2006.
In 2008, Tennessee health care providers issued 1.5 million electronic prescriptions, representing 3 percent of all prescriptions written in the state.
The Office of e-Health Initiatives is the single coordinating authority for the exchange of electronic health information in Tennessee and works to improve the health of Tennesseans by ensuring providers have complete patient information at the point of care.
For more information on the Office of e-Health, visit www.tennesseeanytime.org/ehealth or call 615-532-5041.