BUFFALO, N.Y., Feb. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Lifetime Health Medical Group announced today that it will expand its current electronic prescribing initiative to serve an additional 30,000 patients. The service will be made available through eScript(R), the secure e-prescribing service from RelayHealth Corporation.
The expansion will begin in late February, when RelayHealth completes the loading of Lifetime's patient database into its eScript e-prescribing system. Up until now, e-prescribing has been available to approximately 900 patients. These patients have also had access to the full suite of online patient-physician communication tools available from RelayHealth including appointment scheduling, lab and test results delivery, webVisits and Personal Health Record.
Lifetime Health's decision to expand its e-prescribing initiative comes in advance of a change in New York Public Health Law that takes effect April 19, 2006. RelayHealth eScript will eliminate the need for special bar-coded prescription pads for most prescriptions. These new pads, designed to protect against fraud, will be mandatory for New York physicians according to a new Section 21 of the state law.
Because the secure data exchange will include information about patient diagnoses, physicians will be armed with more information about the patient's health record when prescribing at the point of care. RelayHealth eScript service will increase quality of patient care by reducing the possibility of prescribing errors and supporting online detection of possible drug interactions. It will also bring greater efficiency to Lifetime Health's practices by reducing the number of pharmacy calls and call-backs.
"At Lifetime Health Medical Group, we continually seek ways to improve the quality of patient care and practice efficiency. Using a technology solution like RelayHealth's eScript service is a simple and cost-effective way for us to meet both of these goals," said Arthur Orlick, MD, Chief Medical and Operating Officer for Lifetime Health Medical Group.
eScript is RelayHealth's "connected" e-prescribing solution -- the only e-prescribing solution that connects all parties in the prescribing transaction, including the healthcare consumer. With all parties working together online, prescription data is more accurate and available. The eScript user interface also streamlines the prescribing process, leading to dramatic workflow efficiency. The point of care and renewal process now takes just minutes instead of hours. Because eScript can be embedded in the RelayHealth online communications service, prescription management is fully integrated with overall patient care. eScript offers physicians best-in-class e-prescribing features such as formulary status via RxHub, interaction checking, and electronic submission to virtually all retail and mail order pharmacies.
About Lifetime Health Medical Group
Lifetime Health Medical Group provides primary healthcare to more than 100,000 patients in Buffalo and Rochester. In Buffalo, Lifetime Health Medical Group operates seven sites with a variety of services offered at each health center. Services include pharmacy, laboratory, radiology, internal medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics/gynecology, family practice, and specialty care. Lifetime Health Medical Group also offers complementary/integrated medicine, a dental center, physical therapy, mammography, colonoscopy, endoscopy, nutrition counseling, behavioral health, and urgent care.
About RelayHealth Corporation
RelayHealth is the premier provider of secure online healthcare communication services linking patients, healthcare professionals, health plans, and pharmacies. A secure, clinically structured productivity platform for the medical office, the RelayHealth service is an emerging online communication standard, interfacing with both commercial and custom-built electronic medical record systems through the company's Interoperability Toolkit. Research studies show RelayHealth reduces phone traffic and increases physician productivity through modular features like the webVisit (R) clinical consultation and eScript(R) electronic prescribing-one reason leading health plans nationwide increasingly reimburse providers who use the RelayHealth service. For healthcare consumers, RelayHealth improves convenience, access and communication with their own doctors. For information, visit www.relayhealth.com.
RelayHealth CorporationCONTACT: Briana Pompei of RelayHealth, +1-510-428-7853, orbriana.pompei@relayhealth.com; or Cynthia Eberl of Lifetime Health,+1-716-857-6343, or Cynthia.eberl@lifetimehealth.org
Web site: http://www.relayhealth.com/
