FARMINGTON – A Franklin County health network plans to implement an electronic prescription process that allows doctors to send prescriptions directly to area pharmacies and look for the lowest-cost drugs for patients.
The new system will improve quality, lessen prescription errors and allow physicians to track when and if a patient picks up their medication, Franklin Community Health Network Vice President Leah Binder said Wednesday.
Binder learned Wednesday from the Sun Journal that the health network was awarded a $997,360 grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for a healthy communities health access program.
U.S. Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, both Republicans from Maine, made the announcement Tuesday in a statement.
Binder said the grant will support Franklin Health Access, partnering with HealthReach, to expand access to prescription drugs.
The network will work with the seven area pharmacies to implement an electronic prescription process to make it easier for physicians to find no-cost or low-cost drugs for uninsured or low-income patients.
The program will also let every physician in the community send all patients’ prescriptions to area pharmacies electronically once the new system is implemented, Binder said Wednesday.
“The pharmacies are pretty excited to set up e-prescribing,” she said.
Binder said she believes this will be the first communitywide e-prescribing service in the state.
The community encompasses Franklin County and the northern Androscoggin County towns of Livermore and Livermore Falls, and a couple of other bordering towns.
“We hope and intend that what we learn from this project will be helpful to other communities in the state,” Binder said.
Besides a lot of software and hardware that needs to be installed, she said, the network would also hire pharmacy technicians to assist in obtaining the low-cost drugs. The details still need to be worked out.
The direct link from doctors to pharmacies is expected to reduce prescription errors and remove administrative burdens.
Doctors will also be able to tell when a patient picks up a prescription. Sometimes people never have their prescriptions filled or don’t pick them up because they cannot afford them, Binder said.
The program will also make doctors aware of potential medication interactions and prevent unintended consequences.
“I think this will be an extraordinary gift to all the people in our community,” Binder said. “Many people struggle to purchase prescriptions and now we can make it a little easier for them. For people who have to choose between heating their homes and filling their prescriptions, we’ll be able to offer them a better alternative, and that’s what our health system is all about, and these funds are very welcome as a result.”
The Maine Health Access Foundation assisted the network with the grant, Binder said, and Charlie Woodcock, director of Franklin Health Access, took it from there.
“I’m so excited,” Woodcock said Wednesday. “Now we have a lot of work to do.”
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