What You Should Know:
– DrFirst partners with a Kansas-based pharmacy management system (PMS) provider to improve safety and efficiency in hundreds of pharmacies across the country.
– Speed Script is integrating DrFirst’s SmartSig technology into its suite of pharmacy management solutions (PMS) used by the community and long-term care pharmacies countrywide.
– Using the two technologies could save pharmacies processing more than 250 prescriptions a day nearly 5 1/2 hours a month on critical administrative tasks, leaving more time for staff to focus on important patient engagement opportunities and practice at the top of their license.
Despite the widespread availability of electronic prescribing, pharmacists are still plagued by the need to manually correct free text found in patient directions (known as “sigs”) for 84% of new prescriptions, which can lead to errors, take time away from patients, and slow down pharmacy productivity. Now, pharmacies can successfully address these safety, service, and efficiency issues through a partnership announced today by health technology pioneer DrFirst and Speed Script, a Kansas-based pharmacy management system and services provider.
Through this agreement, Speed Script is integrating DrFirst’s SmartSig technology into its suite of pharmacy management solutions (PMS) used by community and long-term care pharmacies countrywide.
Integration Benefits
SmartSig will help improve safety and give pharmacists more time for patient counseling by automatically and accurately identifying details of an incoming prescription. Using DrFirst’s patented artificial intelligence (AI), SmartSig accurately translates 93% of patient directions, helping avoid medication errors and saving 10 seconds or more of work for each drug entered. Using the two technologies could save pharmacies processing more than 250 prescriptions a day nearly 5 1/2 hours a month on critical administrative tasks, leaving more time for staff to focus on important patient engagement opportunities and practice at the top of their license.
“A pharmacy processing 250 prescriptions per day could save more than 5.4 hours per month on these critical tasks alone,” noted Nick Barger, PharmD, principal pharmacist at DrFirst. “That’s more time for the staff to focus on medication therapy management, med sync, counseling, and other patient engagement opportunities.”
Like physicians, pharmacists often have to spend an excessive amount of time on administrative tasks that take away from direct patient interaction, according to Chuck Welch, chief technology officer at Speed Script. “By integrating SmartSig into our platform, we are giving pharmacists solutions that are proven to save time and enhance patient safety, allowing pharmacists to work at the top of their license and spend more time with patients. We are excited to be the first PMS provider to offer this technology to pharmacies.”
