Surescripts to unveil new Sentinel e-prescription monitoring system at HIMSS17
Surescripts said it will announce the new Sentinel automated system for monitoring e-prescriptions on its network at HIMSS17. And CEO Tom Skelton shed light on the company’s future direction working toward the Triple Aim.
Sentinel will be able to monitor all of the more than 1.5 billion electronic prescriptions sent across its network annually.
“Sentinel provides actionable intelligence that is accurate, scalable, timely and detailed. It helps improve prescription accuracy and consistency which ultimately improves patient safety, efficiency and the quality of care,” Skelton said. “Pharmacists and prescribers will benefit from reduced callbacks and faxes that take them away from caring for patients.”
Surescripts, for instance, identified and validated the major pain points based on input from hundreds of prescribers, pharmacists, vendors, drug compendia and data suppliers. These include things like ensuring the prescriber intent is clear, that the patient directions are clear, and that standard drug descriptions match the identifiers.
“More patient intelligence at critical points of care means better decisions, and better decisions mean lower cost, higher quality and increased safety — the ‘holy grail’ of healthcare,” Skelton added.
Moving toward the Triple Aim, Surescripts will focus on three key strategies.
Firstly, Surescripts will focus on increasing the value of e-prescribing by radically enhancing data quality to reduce the hundreds of millions spent annually on errors and inefficiencies that impact patient safety.
Secondly, the company is working to digitize the remaining 30 percent of prescriptions that still aren’t electronic today – particularly those for controlled substances, specialty drugs, and in long-term care settings. That fashion of digitization also opens the opportunity to automate workflows to benefit patients as well as prescribers and pharmacists.
And, thirdly, the company will be enhancing provider connectivity and patient data sharing to improve health outcomes. It’s National Record Locator Service is one solution that expands its connections allowing providers and health systems to share patient data nationwide across technology platforms and networks in real time in their EHR workflow, according to Skelton.
HIMSS17 runs from Feb. 19-23, 2017 at the Orange County Convention Center.
This article is part of our ongoing coverage of HIMSS17. Visit Destination HIMSS17 for previews, reporting live from the show floor and after the conference.
