[telemedicine] More Tennessee Providers Can Now ePrescribe

[Medical Informatics News]

Doctors with patients insured by BlueCross BlueShield of
Tennessee now can write prescriptions electronically. The electronic prescription service, or computerized
physician order entry (CPOE),*was developed by Caremark Rx
Inc., the Nashville-based pharmaceutical services company. From the Tennessean:

BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee introduced it in September. It’s already being used by several hundred doctors
in the insurer’s network and potentially could reach up to 2 million people insured through BlueCross BlueShield,
spokesman Bill Steverson said.

Caremark also is offering the service in South Carolina, Illinois and New Jersey and could expand it further,
spokesman Dale Thomas said.

Such systems, called computerized physician order entry, or CPOE, are in use in many hospitals because of their
capacity to prevent medical errors. CPOE is encouraged by the Leapfrog Group, an organization of major employers and
other organizations that helps set standards for improved patient safety.

The Caremark-BlueCross BlueShield system allows doctors to generate prescriptions on a computer or handheld
device and send them to a patient’s pharmacy via a protected Internet site. Prescriptions also can be printed out in
a doctor’s office. The so-called iScribe program can check a patient’s medical records to scout for potentially
dangerous drug reactions.


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