Nashville Area Health Care Providers Prepping for Electronic Prescribing

The first session will be from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 24, at Centennial Medical Center, 2201 Murphy Ave., in Nashville. The second session will be from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 25, at Williamson Medical Center, 4321 Carothers Parkway, in Franklin.

 

E-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 e-prescribing benefits providers, pharmacies and patients; 2) How to access the secure Tennessee e-Health Network; and 3) How to adopt e-prescribing into their everyday workflow for better patient care.

 

Pre-registration is required and attendees must be approved recipients of the Office of e-Health Initiatives’ Physician Connectivity Grants. 

 

To receive the grants, health care providers have agreed to e-prescribe for two years and the Office of e-Health Initiatives has approved 1,830 health care providers in Tennessee as grant recipients. 

 

The Office of e-Health Initiatives kicked off the e-prescribing training campaign in January in Cookeville and, after recent training sessions in East Tennessee, has trained almost 150 grant recipients on e-prescribing.

 

The number of active electronic prescribers in Tennessee is 1,950, a 149 percent increase from 2007 and a 749 percent increase 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 Initiatives, visit www.tn.gov/ehealth or call 615-532-5041.

 

 

Editor’s Note: The e-prescribing training sessions are not open to the public.