Alliance for Patient Medication Safety
2530 Professional Road, Suite. 202, Richmond, VA 23235
Phone: (804) 285-4431 Fax: (804) 612-6555
www.medicationsafety.org
CONTACT: Tara Modisett, Executive Director
(804) 285-4431
tara@naspa.us
PEER Portal Launched To Capture Pharmacists’ Experiences With Electronic Prescribing
RICHMOND, Va., October 14, 2010 – The Alliance for Patient Medication Safety (APMS), a federally listed Patient Safety Organization (PSO), announced today the re-launch of a Web portal designed to enable pharmacies to document their encounters with electronic prescribing and provide critical feedback to improving the process. (Electronic prescribing, or e-prescribing, is the electronic transmission of prescription information from the provider’s computer to the pharmacy’s computer, eliminating the need for handwritten prescriptions.) Originally developed in collaboration with SureScripts (www.surescripts.com), the revised Pharmacy and Provider e-Prescribing Experience Reporting (PEER) Portal uses an enhanced, streamlined web-based questionnaire to collect the data necessary to address the continuing challenges in e-prescribing encountered by pharmacists and providers. Data submitted across the country through the PEER Portal will be aggregated and analyzed to provide impetus for further improvements in training, certification standards and technology.
“E-prescribing is on the rise as more providers are tapping into this new technology to improve the safety, quality and efficiency of the prescribing process and take advantage of government incentives,” said Tara Modisett, executive director of APMS. “However, when you have new technology and prescribers on the learning curve, new challenges arise. We are committed to using the reported data to identify and quantify the recurring issues so that we can advocate measures to improve the safety and quality of e-prescribing. Thanks to a grant from the Community Pharmacy Foundation (www.communitypharmacyfoundation.org), we will be able to use the detailed information collected in the PEER Portal to make a difference in patients’ lives.”
APMS and state pharmacy associations have teamed up to encourage pharmacists and providers to regularly enter their e-prescribing experiences and improvement suggestions into the PEER Portal. Widespread use of the PEER Portal will provide the data to drive essential changes.
The Alliance for Patient Medication Safety (APMS) was established by the National Alliance of State Pharmacy Associations (NASPA) and is listed as a PSO with the Agency for Health Research and Quality (AHRQ). The mission of APMS is to foster a culture of quality within the profession of pharmacy that promotes a continuous systems analysis to develop best practices that will reduce medication errors, improve medication use and enhance patient care. To learn more about the programs offered by APMS, visit www.medicationsafety.org