Chattanooga Health Providers Next for Electronic Prescribing Training

NASHVILLE – Tennessee’s Office of e-Health Initiatives continues its statewide electronic prescribing (e-prescribing) training campaign next week with a session for Chattanooga area health care providers, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, March 10 at BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, 801 Pine St., in Chattanooga.

E-prescribing is the secure 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 must agree to e-prescribe for two years.  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 and so far, has trained almost 300 grant recipients on e-prescribing, most recently hosting training sessions for Memphis health providers.

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 three 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.

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