DrFirst, the nation’s leading provider of e-prescribing and medication management solutions, has launched a new service, “Connected Care Communities,” that helps provider organizations establish secure, real-time care collaboration networks that can include any or all healthcare providers in a given community, as well as patients.
Under agreement with each lead provider organization, the software is currently available at no cost to community-based healthcare providers surrounding the lead provider facilities, including primary care and specialty practices, long-term care facilities, clinics and pharmacies.
The lead provider organizations for the initial connected care communities are: Oswego Health, an acute and ambulatory integrated delivery network in upstate New York; and St. Luke’s Cornwall Hospital, located north of New York City in the Lower Hudson Valley region of the state. Working collaboratively with DrFirst, each community is bringing together doctors, nurses, medical staff, pharmacists and other healthcare providers within their respective organizations and across independent facilities in their communities within a secure, real-time care collaboration network. Participants do not need to use the same electronic health record software.
Underpinning the unique Connected Care Communities service is DrFirst’s Backline® secure collaboration software and iPrescribe® mobile medication management software. These interoperable tools for desktop and mobile devices enable community members to seamlessly reach each other using a secure texting architecture to conduct care communications, rapidly exchange clinical data, and support medication management activities. This same secure architecture also allows members of the healthcare communities to contact their patients directly and support them in their needs at any point in their healthcare journey.
Many common healthcare processes will be streamlined through the service, including: exchanging medication history data, lab results and clinical content documents; routing admit, discharge and other patient health event notifications; facilitating referrals and consults; assisting patient care transitions; and communicating about patient prescriptions, clarifications and adherence concerns. More complex clinical workflows will also be deployed, such as ensuring patients are at the right level of care and receiving appropriate follow-on care post-transition, as well as helping provider organizations meet value-based care program requirements, such as New York’s Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment (DSRIP) initiative.
“New York state is pursuing a number of initiatives to improve patient safety, diminish prescription and opioid abuse, and convert to value-based care frameworks,” said G. Cameron Deemer, president of DrFirst. “Having helped 30,000 New York providers meet I-STOP requirements, we are acutely aware of the data-flow challenges they face, the key role secure communications must play in effective care collaboration, and the flexibility providers and staff need to securely access patient information wherever and whenever they need it. We’re in a unique position to help, and we believe Connected Care Communities will fundamentally improve healthcare collaboration and patient outcomes.”
