Chapter 3: A Trip Up the Amazon

Having decided that implementing an Electronic Health Record system didn’t make sense for his practice, Dr. Wigginton pushed forward on e-prescribing. For Dr. Wigginton, e-prescribing was uncharted territory, an expedition on an unpaved Amazonian footpath. While he had received hundreds of “educational” fliers from e-prescribing vendors, Dr. Wigginton felt that these salespeople were trying to exploit his technological ignorance and sell him something he didn’t need.

Enter James, Dr. Wigginton’s son and ad hoc tech guru. Beginning in May, James began researching the “hows, whys, and wherefores” of e-prescribing in order to prepare the office to go electronic. Full of enthusiasm but oblivious to what e-prescribing actually was, he spent hours perusing the internet for any information on reliable vendors and best practices. This task proved challenging for the recent college graduate. After only a few minutes on Google, James was swimming in a muddy torrent of acronyms, organizations, and one-time offers. Where could he turn for dependable information? Even well-established groups like SureScripts seemed more interested in selling a product than in helping doctors become informed about e-prescribing.

Such was James’ confusion until he took a look at the CMA website. After sorting through heaps of biased information, James was glad to find CMA’s “Health Information Technology Resource Center,” a page providing non-commercial information on the costs, benefits, and best approaches to e-prescribing. He was especially pleased when he downloaded and reviewed “E-Prescribing for Dummies,” a Power Point presentation composed by the San Diego County Medical Society and posted by CMA. This presentation candidly listed the pros and cons of e-prescribing, while also providing information on vendor vetting, office preparation, and quality reporting to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Finally, James had encountered a resource that advised a gradual, deliberate approach to going electronic. It was comforting to know that at least one organization was sidestepping the feeding frenzy that had swept up the rest of the medical world.

From his research on the CMA website, James compiled a shopping list of items needed to implement e-prescribing. It seemed that one of the primary advantages of going electronic was the ability to submit prescriptions from a wireless computer directly to pharmacies; in consequence, he decided that he would investigate handheld devices including tablet PCs and Blackberries. Furthermore, he would need to test and compare a number of e-prescribing programs before purchasing one. CMA referred him back to the SureScripts website as the best source of information on vendor viability and quality. With these concrete objectives and resources before him, James now felt that he could make a successful stab at implementing e-prescribing in his father’s solo practice. Both Dr. Wigginton and his son had found a guide that could lead them through the electronic jungle.

Chapter 4: At the Brink of E-Prescribing