Old habits die hard, and it can be challenging to change the way your dental practice handles routine tasks — particularly any task that employs technology. It’s important to ensure that any investment of time and money put into updating your office tools will add value and streamline workflow.
When it comes to electronic prescribing, there is a straightforward way to tell if your practice could benefit from software that not only provides compliance with the law, but also improves overall efficiency. If your current e-prescribing software cannot answer these questions with a confident yes, it may be time to upgrade to a more robust service.
- Does it improve your practice’s productivity?
- Does it save your patients time and effort?
- Does it increase patient medication adherence?
- Has it cut costs?
- Does it improve prescription accuracy and to help protect your practice from liability issues and concerns?
Most practices could benefit from these e-prescription capabilities, but it’s rare that a single solution can help you with all of them. A wide range of software options are on the market, but not all of them can achieve this high standard of safety and efficacy. That’s why evaluating whether you have the right solution for your practice can make a significant difference.
Measure your current solution against desirable features
The way to use e-prescribing most effectively as a clinical workflow improvement tool is to measure your current solution against desirable features in your cloud-based software.
Review some of the features most requested by dentists. Does your current e-prescribing software include all these features?
- Integrates with existing practice software
- Identifies and alerts to interactions and contraindications
- Auto-fills patient information to streamline and prevent duplicate entries
- Saves prescriptions and pharmacies to speed up entries
- Connects to a broad network of pharmacies
- Provides up-to-date drug directory with instant access
- Provides access to patient prescription history regardless of prescriber
- Allows secure prescribing from any device, anywhere you are, through cloud flexibility
High-quality software should provide seamless connection between your dental office and pharmacies to facilitate quick and easy filling of prescriptions necessary to deliver the care your patients need and deserve.
For example, some solutions are bound to server-based on-site practice management systems and only allow e-prescribing from a desktop computer, limiting the efficiency and speed. Others only allow you to access e-prescribing from an app on your smartphone.
The highest-performing e-prescribing options are cloud- based, allowing you to e-prescribe on any computer, tablet or phone, from any location and offer features within the software for safer, more accurate prescribing.
Improve your dental practice's CURES checks and integration
Some software solutions still require you to log in to the California Controlled Substance Utilization Review and Evaluation System (CURES) separately from your e-prescription software. One of the biggest complaints from dentists is that entering patient information may take up to 50 clicks and anywhere from 5 to 45 minutes to get a result. Due to this delay, some dentists may not be adhering to the mandate to check CURES before prescribing.
Electronic prescribing software that seamlessly integrates with CURES allows you to check patients’ controlled substance prescription history in compliance with state law. A few high-efficiency e-prescribing options on the market also keep a record, date and time stamp of every check in case of an allegation or audit of your practice. When used, databases like CURES are a powerful tool that can make significant and meaningful progress in combating prescription drug abuse.
Don’t delay choosing the best e-prescribing solution for your practice
Now is the time to make sure you are not just complying with the e-prescribing law but are using software to catalyze your clinical workflow. Products differ and offer a wide range of features and amenities. Do your due diligence to make sure the elements of the software you select save you time and effort while enhancing patient care.
As a benefit of your CDA membership, you are eligible to receive 43% off your subscription to iCoreRx electronic prescribing software. Endorsed by CDA, cloud-based iCoreRx gives you the freedom to e-prescribe from any computer, laptop or device, from any location. Only one subscription per dentist is needed to practice across multiple locations. To get started, book a demo online or call 888.810.7706.