A group of U.S. pharmacies launched a nationwide data service Tuesday that will give individual physicians and health care organizations electronic access to the prescription drug histories of people suddenly dislocated by natural disasters or other emergencies.
The service, Emergency Rx History, will let health care providers link via an electronic records system or Web portal to the prescription drug records of people who use the nation’s leading pharmacies, including Wal-Mart, Walgreen’s and CVS outlets.
Emergency Rx History will use as a backbone network the Pharmacy Health information Exchange, the standard system pharmacies use to exchange prescription data with physicians’ offices. Patient prescription data would be available to caregivers wherever a disaster occurred.
PHIE is operated by SureScripts, a network created by the National Association of Chain Drug Stores and the National Community Pharmacists Association. Pharmacy operators participating in the network include Brooks Eckerd, CVS/pharmacy, Giant Food Pharmacy, Kerr Drug, Longs Drugs, Rite Aid, Stop & Shop, Walgreens and Wal-Mart.
Emergency Rx History is a permanent extension of KatrinaHealth.org, created after then National Coordinator for Health Information Technology David Brailer called on the health information technology industry to come up with a way to fill the vacuum of recorded personal health information created by the storm.
Organizations including SureScripts and the American Medical Association launched KatrinaHealth.org on Sept. 22, 2005, about three weeks after the hurricane hit. “It had fairly limited functionality,” said Ron Cronin, a SureScripts spokesman. “It only gave a 90-day snapshot – one push of data.”
The system drew about 5,000 queries within 60 days of its launch, Cronin said. “But it filled a void; it made a difference. And it saved lives."
In December 2005, Surescripts and the pharmacies decided to examine lessons learned from KatrinaHealth.org and launch a permanent emergency prescription history network. The result was Emergency Rx History, announced Tuesday at the annual meeting of the Association of Chain Drug Stores in Phoenix.
Physicians can connect to the system in two ways. First, they can use electronic medical records software that has been certified by SureScripts to receive the Rx History feed.
So far, about 50 systems have been certified under a process begun as part of a pilot sponsored by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to test the interoperability of e-prescribing services.
Since most health care providers do not currently have access to a licensed system, a portal has been set up by the American Medical Association and Informed Decisions to facilitate access to Emergency Rx History.
AMA will register providers to access the system in the event of an emergency via the Web site www.ICERx.org, which stands for “In Case of Emergency Rx.”
“For anyone on multiple medications or a medication for a chronic condition, the RxHistory service could help a physician or pharmacist save that person's life,” said Dr. Roxane Townsend, deputy secretary for the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, in a statement.
Government Health IT presents Liesa Jo Jenkins, executive director of CareSpark, in this recent eSeminar, where she shared her experiences and insight into building a health information exchange that enhances community health, rewards regional collaboration and drives economic progress.
