Nevada to make e-prescribing available for all physicians
The state of Nevada is soon to become the first state to make e-prescription available to all of its physicians across the state. Sierra Health Services, the State of Nevada's largest health plan, is collaborating with the Clark County Medical Society to provide funding for the initiative.
Supporting the initiative will be clinical software, connectivity and information system provider Allscripts which has been selected to provide the electronic prescribing technology needed for the program.
Sierra and the Clark County Medical Society are confident that by working in tandem they can rapidly drive physician adoption of electronic prescribing across the State. The organizers hope that as a result of the program there will be a reduction in medical prescription errors and increased use of generic prescription drugs.
Some progress has already been made. Southwest Medical Associates (SMA), a subset of Sierra Health Services, has already deployed Allscripts Electronic Health Record to its nearly 250 medical providers. The results were positive, as SMA's physicians last year wrote over one million electronic prescriptions for their patients, making them one of the country's leading electronic prescribing practices.
"As both an insurer and a provider of healthcare, Sierra is uniquely positioned to implement this emerging technology. Our adoption of e-prescribing, as well as electronic health records, has now made our clinics and treatment facilities virtually paperless," said Anthony Marlon, M.D., Chairman and CEO, Sierra. "Once we began to see a return on our initial investment and an improvement in patient satisfaction and the quality of care delivered at SMA, we knew we had to find a way to make this technology available to all physicians in the State of Nevada. I am very pleased that through this collaborative effort, we will now be able to do so."
Under the initiative, Allscripts is giving a discount for its e-prescribing systems. Physician that are part of the Clark County Medical Society will be eligible for a 10-year software license for free with two years of monthly maintenance services included. Non-member physicians in the State are eligible to receive the software at no cost, though they will have to cover a small monthly fee. Adopting physicians will have to come up with their own hardware to host the web-based Allscripts software.
Supporting the initiative will be clinical software, connectivity and information system provider Allscripts which has been selected to provide the electronic prescribing technology needed for the program.
Sierra and the Clark County Medical Society are confident that by working in tandem they can rapidly drive physician adoption of electronic prescribing across the State. The organizers hope that as a result of the program there will be a reduction in medical prescription errors and increased use of generic prescription drugs.
Some progress has already been made. Southwest Medical Associates (SMA), a subset of Sierra Health Services, has already deployed Allscripts Electronic Health Record to its nearly 250 medical providers. The results were positive, as SMA's physicians last year wrote over one million electronic prescriptions for their patients, making them one of the country's leading electronic prescribing practices.
"As both an insurer and a provider of healthcare, Sierra is uniquely positioned to implement this emerging technology. Our adoption of e-prescribing, as well as electronic health records, has now made our clinics and treatment facilities virtually paperless," said Anthony Marlon, M.D., Chairman and CEO, Sierra. "Once we began to see a return on our initial investment and an improvement in patient satisfaction and the quality of care delivered at SMA, we knew we had to find a way to make this technology available to all physicians in the State of Nevada. I am very pleased that through this collaborative effort, we will now be able to do so."
Under the initiative, Allscripts is giving a discount for its e-prescribing systems. Physician that are part of the Clark County Medical Society will be eligible for a 10-year software license for free with two years of monthly maintenance services included. Non-member physicians in the State are eligible to receive the software at no cost, though they will have to cover a small monthly fee. Adopting physicians will have to come up with their own hardware to host the web-based Allscripts software.