The healthcare industry is a paradox for the tech community; it stands to significantly benefit from upgraded technology. Outdated systems used by many healthcare organizations are ineffective and costly, which makes them inefficient and potentially dangerous for their patients. However, mountains of HIPAA red tape, security liability concerns, and abuse of the healthcare system – both by patients and insurers – can make upgrading technologies a logistical nightmare.
Luckily, AdvancedMD, a provider of cloud services for independent physician practices, is showing great innovations throughout many technologies that benefit one of the most overlooked and important entities in healthcare, the independent practice. AdvancedMD is turning the many logistical nightmares into a thing of the past. Thousands of independent physicians have made the switch to innovative products that just make sense for their practice. These products are designed to make switching easier and more beneficial for their practices and patients.
As proof of this innovation, AdvancedMD released an important enterprise solution for healthcare professionals, electronic prescribing of controlled substances. AdvancedEPCS is an ePrescribing service that “meets strict regulatory requirements for DEA class II-V narcotics.” The service is poised to revamp the way physicians prescribe one of the most abused, but necessary, drugs on the market, according to Kyle Piscioniere of Healthtech Zone1.
Mr. Piscioniere continues, electronic prescriptions are, to many physicians, the future of practicing medicine. They build patient profiles, which help doctors notice patterns and problems in a patient’s prescription history. Those profiles help identify problem patients, including drug-seeking patients and patients who may not be fit to remember their prescription history. In addition, electronic prescriptions are increasingly safer than the traditional pen-and-paper prescription pad. An electronic login is much more difficult to steal than a notebook, and it’s much more difficult to forge an electronic signature.
AdvancedEPCS regulates the prescription process through two channels: two-factor authentication then audits and cross-references the drug. AdvancedEPCS secures the process by requiring two-factor authentication before allowing the prescribed drugs to be prescribed and also audits and cross-references the prescribed drug and the patient, giving both a list of previous prescriptions and potential drug interactions.
Those two channels address the biggest concerns of healthcare tech companies: security and patient care. AdvancedEPCS will pair with the AdvancedMD cloud suite for independent physicians and is proving to change the way medical doctors practice across the nation.
“My practice is now able to electronically prescribe 80-90 percent of our prescriptions. It is easy and there is no extra work involved,” said Dr. Guy Lerner, Specialists in Pain Care, Louisville, Kentucky. “In addition, it allows me to conveniently prescribe schedule 2 drugs while eliminating security concerns. There are no paper scripts to lose, and we can easily track the prescriptions at the pharmacy.” The schedule 2 drugs are a driving factor of this new product. The medical community is waiting on stricter deployment guidelines for those drugs, part of the CDC’s commitment to more heavily regulate opiates in the public sphere.
AdvancedEPCS will only help monitor opiate use. At the very least, they’ll be a necessary technology to assist the outdated software or paper used within the medical industry. AdvancedEPCS is only one example of how AdvancedMD is changing the landscape for independent practices.
AdvancedMD, recognized as one of the most innovative software technology companies, invested $15,000,000 in its independent practice technology suite in 2016 alone. Get an in-depth overview of the most complete medical office software suite that lets you run your entire practice from a single platform.
