Electronic Prescribing(e-Prescribing) in Las Vegas
I’m not afraid to say that I live and work in Las Vegas. I don’t think I would call it completely home, but possibly home for now. Well, my third favorite Healthcare IT blog Just recently posted an interesting link to the local Las Vegas newspaper. I will admit that it is really the only newspaper that people read in Las Vegas. There are a few other that try to challenge, but really it is all about the Las Vegas Review Journal or “RJ” as it is affectionately known. I digress. Neil points out that an article on what the RJ called news is in his opinion stale news since he personally wrote about the same story in October in a Health IT World article. It’s interesting what can be considered “stale” news to one might be great news for another.
More importantly I was grateful that Neil pointed this article out to me since I’m very interested in getting Allscripts for free. I’ll have to see how it integrates with my EMR package and how Allscripts works, but I’ve wanted to use it for a while. One other problem I may have with Allscripts is that we have our own pharmacy. I wonder what is involved in getting Allscripts to work at our pharmacy. Does the e-Pescribing in Allscripts integrate with our pharmacy software ProPharm from Kalos Inc? These are all questions that I’ll have to be looking at soon. I’m also interested in how the alternative works when a pharmacy is not Allscripts compliant. I’ve heard it just sends through the fax which is something I’ve been looking into myself as an interim solution. Now if I could just find the time to work on all these fun projects. Thanks Neil for pointing it out to me. I guess I should have become part of the healthcare IT blogosphere sooner.
EMR Money in Rochester, NY
I recently ran into some other EMR news in my wife’s home town of Rochester, NY. I’m always interested in what’s happening there since I’m sure we’d consider moving there one day if the opportunity is right(despite Kodak pretty much leaving Rochester). The EMR article’s first line went as followed:
Two local coalitions will use $4.6 million in state grants to expand the use of electronic medical records. They hope the result will improve the quality of care for patients.
However, as I delved into the article I found that almost no amount of the money is going towards actual doctor’s implementations of EMR. In fact, almost all the money is going towards the development of an RHIO in Rochester. I think this is a great thing I can’t wait to see what a full working RHIO looks like. This type of money should give them a good start. Maybe some of you could disagree and say that RHIO’s are EMR. However, I would disagree with you. I will agree that RHIO’s are linked to an EMR and that an RHIO is very beneficial when you have an EMR. I’ll even say that an EMR becomes infinitely more important when there is an RHIO available. However, an RHIO is not an EMR. So, I was disappointed to read what I thought was a bunch of cash to support a nice EMR project in the Rochester area turn out to be a bunch of money for an RHIO. Maybe I should start working with an RHIO in the Las Vegas area. Is there one? I best find out.
