Governor Jim Gibbons accepted the Safe-Rx^™ award for Nevada ranking third in the nation for electronic prescribing.  Electronic prescribing, or ”e-prescribing”, is widely acknowledged as a means of enhancing patient safety. The Safe-Rx award is given annually by the nation’s community pharmacies to the top 10 e-prescribing states in the nation and to three physicians within each of the winning states who have demonstrated outstanding leadership through their use of e-prescribing technology.

“On behalf of the people of Nevada, I want to extend my appreciation to the physicians and pharmacists serving our state who have made the e-prescribing program such a tremendous success,” Governor Jim Gibbons said.  “This new technology better ensures that people receive the correct medication, which ultimately benefits our citizens, physicians and pharmacists."

Governor Gibbons also joined with leaders from the nation’s community pharmacies to recognize three Nevada physicians for their outstanding efforts to improve patient safety and practice efficiency through the use of electronic prescribing technology.  Doctors Roosevelt Watson, Evangelia Papageorge and Anjali Rege, all of Las Vegas, were also honored with the Safe-Rx^™ award. 

“Electronic prescribing is an efficient and essential part of any practice with electronic medical records,” said Dr. Papageorge.  “It cuts back on faxing.”

“I no longer have to worry about my patients receiving incorrect medication due to poor handwriting,” said Dr. Watson.  “The speed and accuracy are light years ahead of what we did or had available in the past.”

The National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS), the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) and SureScripts^®, operators of the nation’s Pharmacy Health Information Exchange^™, created the Safe-Rx award to raise awareness of e-prescribing as a more secure, accurate and informed means of prescribing patients medication.  This year’s Safe-Rx awards follow the release of a report in July of 2006 by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) that focused national attention on the 1.5 million preventable medication errors that occur in the United States each year.  To prevent these errors and the injuries they cause, the IOM report made a series of recommendations, including one that all prescribers and pharmacies prescribe electronically by 2010.

The Safe-Rx awards are based on an analysis of data from new prescriptions and refill responses electronically transmitted over the Pharmacy Health Information Exchange^™.  States are ranked by the number of prescriptions routed electronically in 2006 as a percentage of the total number of prescriptions eligible for electronic routing. 

In making the awards, SureScrips listed three key factors to Nevada’s success:

• Nevada pharmacies have made significant computer system upgrades over the past three years, allowing physician practices to exchange prescription information with them electronically.
• Sierra Health Services has collaborated with the Clark County medical Society and Allscripts Healthcare Solutions to fund E-prescribing software for every provider in the state.
• Southwest Medical Associates has introduced physicians to e-prescribing technology through training, education and incentive plans.

Top 10 E-Prescribing States: The 2^nd Annual* Safe-Rx Award Winners

1.      Massachusetts

2.      Rhode Island

3.      Nevada

4.      Deleware

5.      Maryland

6.      Michigan

7.      North Carolina

8.      New Jersey**

9.      Ohio

10.  Washington**

*For more information about the awards, and to see how this year’s state rankings compare to the year before, visit www.SureScripts.com/SafeRx. 

For more information about how to start prescribing electronically, physicians can visit www.GetRxConnected.com/NV. 

Nevadans interested in finding out more about how electronic prescribing benefits them and their families can go to www.GetRxConnected.com/NV/patients. 

Governor Gibbons was in Washington, D.C. participating in the National Governors Association Winter Meeting.