Filling a prescription from your doctor's clinic may soon get a lot easier, faster and possibly safer.
PatientCare Family Clinic was among the first in Missouri to send prescriptions electronically to participating pharmacies, but more area clinics will have the ability in the near future, said clinic medical director Dr. Tom Landholt.
Electronic prescribing eliminates time-consuming paperwork and phone calling between the doctor's office and pharmacist, it prevents mistakes that occur in deciphering handwriting or retyping drug data at the pharmacy. And it can streamline the time it takes for a patient to get a prescription filled or refilled, Landholt said.

"Over half my prescriptions are going out this way" to Wal- Mart, Walgreens, Sam's, Super-D and a few participating independents, Landholt said.

"The patients have been excited about this because everybody's time is important," he added.

On Monday, it made a difference for Alex Kintner, 16, who saw Landholt's physician assistant Dawn Zabinski for a sinus infection.

She called up Kintner's records on a computer in the exam room, chose an antibiotic from a menu on the screen, clicked on the name of his pharmacy and pressed the "sign" button.

Instead of it printing out a prescription slip, the order went directly to the pharmacy. Within a minute she got a receipt that the order had been sent through SureScripts, a secure national clearinghouse for electronic prescriptions.

"As soon as we left the doctor's office, we went to the Walgreens on East Sunshine and it was ready when we got there," Kintner said. "I've never gotten a prescription that fast before," he added. "It usually takes an hour."

Speed at the pharmacy is up to the pharmacist, Landholt said. But the electronic ordering cuts down on the back-and-forth of calls, re-calls, faxes and re-faxes that add up over a day's time.

"This was a two-click procedure to get the prescription filled out and sent to the pharmacy," Landholt said. "That's pretty cool."

His was one of three clinics in Missouri, Arizona and Portland that did final testing before going live this month using SureScripts. The software could be released for sale Oct. 1, he said.

SureScripts provides an "electronic interface," or path for the doctor's and pharmacist's computers to talk.

To participate, a clinic must buy SureScripts software or have an electronic medical records system that links to SureScripts. Both CoxHealth and St. John's systems have bought or are using software that has the ability to access this service in the future, he said.

The SureScripts Web site, www.surescripts.com, says more than 40 percent of the nation's pharmacies are members. As more pharmacies and physicians participate, they will help drive down the cost of prescribing transactions and boost efficiency and safety, the Web site said.

Like an online banking system, SureScripts must meet federal standards for privacy and security of medical records, Landholt said.

The system also has built-in safeguards, and communication goes both ways.

"The pharmacist is still going to look at a prescription," he said. And he or she will still call by telephone with concerns about potential drug interactions or allergies.

If a patient calls the pharmacy for a refill, the pharmacist sends a message to the doctor that lands in the patient's chart and flags the doctor.

Landholt or Zabinski can approve or deny the refill with one click, and can send an explanation via computer. If they order a drug incorrectly, the system will immediately alert him that the order failed.

Physician assistant Zabinski sees a big difference between this method and her former job in Marshfield.

"Nurses would be there 45 minutes to one hour after closing just (calling in) refills," she said, while larger clinics hire full-time "refill nurses." Nurses at PatientCare Family Clinic go home at 4:30 p.m., she said.

"It's exciting to feel like when I send it electronically, I'm not going to get a phone call back that (the prescription fax) didn't get there," she said.

Landholt added, "It's very simple, but it takes a great deal of headache away if you can do it electronically."

Labels: No Prescription, Online Pharmacy, Prescription Drugs