Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Rochester RHIO receives patient data from Excellus

ROCHESTER, NY – Doctors who electronically prescribe through the Rochester Regional Health Information Organization now can view all the medicines that their patients are taking, reducing the chance of drug errors and misuse, RHIO officials announced recently.

Excellus BlueCross BlueShield is supplying prescription data to authorized medical providers who use Rochester RHIO, joining Preferred Care and many national insurers. Excellus delivers healthcare services to 1.8 million people across upstate New York.

The Institute of Medicine reported that more than 1.5 million Americans are injured every year by medication errors. Rochester RHIO offers an e-prescribing feature that replaces handwritten "scripts" with an electronic ordering system that improves patient safety and makes prescriptions and refills available faster. Patients must give consent to make their information available to medical teams using Rochester RHIO.

Connected through Axolotl's Elysium Exchange and EMR Lite software, physicians use Rochester RHIO to receive electronic lab test results, radiology reports and medication history while ordering prescriptions or providing other medical care.

Having current and recent medication information reduces the chance of contraindication and incorrect dosages, RHIO officials said. Patients are also free from the burden of remembering previous prescriptions.

The RHIO links to the Rx-Hub Pharmacy Health Information Exchange, which connects providers, pharmacies and payers. Operated by Surescripts, RxHub is the nation's largest network of pharmacy information. Area physicians connected to the Rochester RHIO will see the most recent two years of medication history for patients in the Greater Rochester area from Excellus BCBS.

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