eRx and HCN partnership to deliver online prescriptions to 90% of GPs

 

Health Communication Network has signed up with eRx Script Exchange to deliver electronic prescriptions through its flagship product Medical Director. 

 

Under the new partnership, more than 17,000 subscribers, including 2,100 specialists who use Medical Director software will be able to send electronic prescriptions via eRx. This means that eRx Script Exchange will reach 90% of Australian medical practitioners by the end of 2009. 

 

HCN CEO, John Frost, said, HCN has the utmost confidence in the eRx solution and strongly believes that it is the most robust and reliable form of ePrescribing currently available in Australia.  By delivering this functionality to our Medical Director subscribers, we will ensure that our customers can be confident that the ePrescribing component will be supported and maintained by HCN directly.  

 

Further, it has become evident that our subscribers see a need for ePrescribing and the quality and safety benefits associated, evidenced by the medical communitys support for the eRx solution. 

 

HCN has chosen eRx as a first step towards integrated e-prescribing for Medical Director based on the companys belief that the eRx platform is robust, reliable, well architected and sustainable. Importantly, the integration into Medical Director ensures patient safety and quality use of medicines principles are adhered to through close collaboration with all parties. 

 

eRx Script Exchange is the first national platform for e-scripts, allowing GPs to send prescriptions electronically, with confidence that patients can have their scripts dispensed safely and securely anywhere around Australia. In the four months since launch in April 2009: 

 

99% of pharmacies have been guaranteed access to the platform, as a result of commitment of all major pharmacy software vendors to deliver eRx to users 

GPs and pharmacies have sent more than 350,000 transactions via eRx 

2300 additional GPs and pharmacists are registered to start using eRx in the coming months 

 

Mr Kos Sclavos, National President, Pharmacy Guild of Australia, stated, This is a significant example of industry driving e-health initiatives to improve patient outcomes. With eRx Script Exchange, Australia now has in place a national platform for electronic scripts, delivering immediate improvements for patient care and safety, and ongoing efficiencies for prescribers and pharmacists. This milestone for Australian health care will genuinely deliver improved outcomes for patients and professionals. 

 

The partnership with HCN, the market leaders in GP software, is key to making electronic prescriptions available to medical professionals and patients as a priority, according to Paul Naismith, CEO of Fred Health, the Australian IT company behind eRx Script Exchange. Electronic scripts improve patient safety by removing potential errors during re-keying, in turn reducing the potential for adverse drug events. With over two hundred million scripts dispensed every year in Australia, electronic scripts provide a significant opportunity to improve patient safety and care. Electronic scripts are also a fundamental component of the move towards e-health, and this partnership with HCN is vital in continuing national momentum on that path. 

 

Chairman of eRx Script Exchange, Graham Cunningham, said, Taking an industry-wide and vendor-wide approach has been a vital step in ensuring that the maximum number of health and pharmacy 

professionals around Australia will be able to use online prescriptions as quickly as possible. 

 

James Kavanagh, eHealth architect, Microsoft Australia said, From the inception of this project, weve always had the focus on achieving open interoperability with a wide range of software systems. eRx has required a technology platform that can deliver open standards based integration, even when those standards are only emerging, and this announcement strongly endorses the pragmatic and flexible approach taken. The eRx platform, which leverages the open-source Microsoft Health Connection Engine is already consistent with the national secure messaging specifications and can be flexibly extended to support future national health standards for medication and terminology. 

 

Medical and pharmacy practitioners can register interest in using electronic prescriptions at www.erx.com.au. 

 

For further information please contact: 

 

John Frost 

CEO, HCN, Mobile: 0402 383 658 

 

Kos Sclavos 

National President, Pharmacy Guild of Australia, Mobile: 0415 879 830 

 

Paul Naismith 

CEO, Fred Health, Mobile: 0417 341 899 

 

Graham Cunningham 

Chairman, eRx Script Exchange, Mobile: 0412 151 944 

 

Marie-Claire Suter 

Microsoft Australia, Mobile: 0414 789 605