As you might have heard, we have a brand new feature for our users: Drug-drug and drug-allergy interaction alerts. This feature will not only take us one step closer to full ONC EHR certification but it’s an integral part of the ONC’s vision for improving US healthcare.
According to the Food and Drug Administration, about 2 million people are affected by adverse drug reactions (ADR) every year. 100,000 people die from ADR yearly. ADR is so prevalent in this country that it is the fourth leading cause of death ahead of pulmonary disease, AIDS, diabetes, pneumonia and automobile deaths. Sadly, Americans experience about 195,000 medical errors alone, all which can be preventable.
“We constantly talk about the EHR’s being potentially life-saving when used correctly or proving to the healthcare sector that providers are able to deliver quality care to patients, we can now demonstratively and empirically prove that we are saving patient’s lives,” said Matt Douglass, VP of Product Development at Practice Fusion.
Prior to Electronic Health Records, medical providers would have to sift through over 3000 pages of drug information and possible interactions in the Physicians Desk Reference (PDR) book, to protect their patient from experiencing adverse drug or allergy reactions. Clearly that was not the easiest way to secure patient prescription information, especially when the book alone weighs seven pounds, about as much as a small dog!
Thankfully, Practice Fusion has taken care of the hassle for our users. No longer will you have to debate the cause and effect of combining two different prescriptions. Our EHR will not only do that for you but it will update itself monthly, while the print version of the PDR comes out yearly. We are helping the physician make sure that new drugs prescribed to a patient won’t be life threatening or will create an unwanted reaction.
“I think the biggest benefit with introducing sub-level clinical decision support is enabling a physician to focus on the patient and not have to worry about the other interactions that can be occurring behind the scenes,” said Douglass. “You can rely on the software to take care of the adverse medication interactions and focus on being empathetic with the patient, working with them through their problems, letting the computer take care of the memorization pieces. So the more we can remove the human element from the rote aspect of providing good medical care, the more there can be a human interaction between the doctor and the patient.”
This feature ensures that before a doctor signs off on a new medication or a new dosage, their patient’s chart will be checked by our system to see if any of those will create an unwanted reaction. We’ve integrated the clinical decision support directly into the doctor’s workflow, so they do not have to search through reference books or through websites anymore, it happens right there for the user, immediately. There’s no extra button to click, we do it for you, for free, forever. And that is something that sets us apart from other EHR vendors out there.
Shea Steinberg
Jr. Social Media Specialist
Practice Fusion EHR
