Digital technology is radically transforming the healthcare sector, especially because it’s a data-rich industry. Care provision is also highly dependent on how seamlessly patient information flows between healthcare providers, which is why EHRs have become an essential tool in clinical decision support and patient care. They ensure patient data is available wherever and whenever it’s needed.  

This ultimately improves care, refines diagnostics & outcomes, enhances care coordination, and medical practice efficiencies. As an EHR provider, electronic prescription tools are a huge part of your product offering. You need to ensure that your systems go beyond providing standard clinical data and are highly inclusive to give doctors a broader view of the patient’s care. Here’s how the right e-prescribe tool can add value to your EHR product offering and attract clientele.  

Pharmacogenomics

It’s easier than ever to have access to a patient’s genetic makeup. With more and more genomic mapping and profiling, we can unlock even more mysteries of human health. Since genetics can play a large role in to how a patient responds to a particular medication, pharmacogenomics can give doctors incredible insight during the prescribing process.  

Pharmacogenomics integrates genetics into healthcare to ensure patients are only prescribed efficient medication with minimal side effects. It also highlights serious but actionable genetic medical risks as they arise, allowing the doctor to prescribe medication that treats both the illness and the genetic risk. 

Drug Review and Interactions Checking

A study by the National Center of Health Statistics revealed that 1 in every 5 Americans ages 40-79 has taken around 5 drugs within the last 30 days. With this increase in the number of medications that patients take simultaneously, the probability of dangerous drug interactions also rises. This is why pharmacies and hospitals should have reliable drug interaction checkers to avoid prescribing medications that adversely affect the patient.  

Drug interactions are dangerous because they may worsen the patient’s medical condition, impact the effectiveness of the prescribed medication, and put the patient at risk for toxicity. If the doctors are, however, able to check for drug reviews and interactions before making e-prescriptions, they can drastically increase drug efficiency.  

Real-Time Benefits Information

There have been concerns about the increasing cost of healthcare and out-of-pocket spending by patients. One of the best ways to tackle this is through a real-time benefits information tool. These tools provide doctors and pharmacists with the current price of medication and their more affordable alternatives before they place an order. They draw this information from patient-specific price details and pharmacy benefit plans.  

The real-time benefits information tool also breaks down the costs based on the patient’s health plan information and even lets the doctor know whether the prescribed drug requires prior authorization. This ultimately reduces the number of patients that abandon their medication because they found out that it was too expensive. 

Electronic Prior Authorization Processing

Prior authorization is not only time-consuming but also a huge administrative burden to healthcare providers. It’s the approval that physicians need before they can prescribe certain medications and is very lengthy. First, an e-prescription is made, and if it requires prior authorization, the pharmacist lets the patient know.  

In situations where certifications are required, the pharmacist has to contact the medical provider, who then completes the relevant form and sends it to the patient insurer or pharmacy benefit manager. Finally, the prescription is denied or approved, and in some cases, more information is requested.  

When healthcare providers submit prior authorizations electronically, they can easily track rejections, approvals, and information requests in real-time. This kind of transparency makes it easy to fast-track the process.  

All-Provider Patient History

A clear and complete medical history is vital to providing patients with quality care. This is because it contains critical information such as allergies, physical exams and results, immunizations, surgeries, etc. With this data, healthcare providers can evaluate the patient’s treatment plan and mitigate malpractice risks. This also ensures the patient’s care routine remains undisrupted.  

Usually, accessing this information is a tedious process, especially because it sometimes involves contacting past medical providers.  By integrating our e-prescribe system with your EHR system, medical providers will have a central source of all patient data.  

Formulary and Coverage Information

Most drug plans have a list of approved drugs that often cover brand-name and generic prescription drugs.  Access to this formulary and coverage information helps healthcare providers minimize costs by prescribing medication with the highest therapeutic value and is affordable. This then minimizes variations between the prescribed drugs, enhancing the level of prescription efficiency.  

PDMP Access

Prescription drug monitoring programs are vital to controlling opioid prescriptions. They bridge the gap between pharmacies and healthcare providers to ensure that patient safety is upheld. With PDMP access, prescribers can see what other controlled substances a patient has already been prescribed in their state as well as the surrounding states. This prevents doctor shopping and keeps controlled drugs out of the secondary market.  

Deliver More Value to Your Clients Today

As an EHR provider, your top priority should be to provide an inclusive product offering to your clients. Basic features and tools are no longer enough, especially because doctors need to go through a lot of data before making safe and efficient prescriptions.  

By integrating our e-prescription service with your EHR system, healthcare providers will have access to a wide range of tools that will streamline their online prescription process and enhance value-based medical care. Schedule a demo to learn more about how NewCrop Rx supports our EHR partners today.