FARMINGTON – Noreen Comeau touched a stylus to the screen of her pocket computer several times before her eyes brightened and a smile appeared on her face.

She found it.

The family nurse practitioner and colleague Dr. Stephen Bien were searching their small palm-sized wireless computers for medication dosage information.

They are among the medical providers at Wilson Stream Family Practice and Counseling in Farmington piloting an electronic prescription program for the Franklin Community Health Network.

The network received a grant last year to implement electronic prescribing at medical practices in greater Franklin County, including Livermore and Livermore Falls. The system allows providers to send prescriptions directly to area pharmacies. It will improve quality, lessen prescription errors, allow physicians to find low-cost drugs for patients and track when and if a patient picks up their medication, network Vice President Leah Binder said Friday.

It is expected to put the network on the map to be among the first in the country to offer e-prescribing communitywide, she said. The goal is to have the system implemented by 2007.

Comeau’s small computer is always in her pocket.

If she needs to write a prescription for a patient she can access their medications, their allergies, their pharmacy and the medication that would work best.

She can also review the costs of prescriptions to give patients a ballpark figure of what to expect when they pick it up, Comeau said.

“I’ll say are you going to be able to cover the cost of the medication, especially if the meds are expensive and they don’t have insurance,” she said, “and if not, I’ll find an alternative.”

Even if they do have insurance, Comeau said, she’ll know what tier of co-pay they’ll have with their insurance and try to go with the most reasonable and cost effective.

Her office ran tests last week sending electronic prescriptions to pharmacies in the area.

She touched the stylus to the first three letters of the word “test” and Randall Tester, the fake name of the test patient, popped up.

“We are on the cusp of e-prescribing being required,” she said, as she pulled up the name of a drug.

“I write all the directions and how many doses I’m going to give, then how many refills, then I hit ‘send,'” Comeau said. “It’s gone to the pharmacy.”

All within a minute.

“It took less time than it takes to write it on a piece of paper, and it’s already at the pharmacy before the patient leaves the office,” she said.

Before, the patient would have waited at the pharmacy. And before, Comeau wouldn’t have known if a problem had arisen either with a drug interaction, cost or that insurance wouldn’t cover it.

“Now, it’s much quicker for the patient,” she said.

She also would have to look up all the medications the patient was on to see if they would interact with one she planned to prescribe.

“Now it’s all done electronically,” she said.

There will be no more paper prescriptions, she said, and the electronic prescriptions are much easier to read.

Farmington pharmacist Jim Witt agreed.

“It worked great,” he said.

The prescription is easier to read, and the big thing is there is less time on the telephone, which can be aggravating, Witt said, plus everything is stored in the computer.

“I’m enthusiastic about it because I see it as a timesaver,” Comeau said.

She can access patient information from home when she’s on call as well.

People have been very receptive to the program, even those not familiar with technology, she said.

“It’s awesome. Cool. It really is,” she said. “It’s so easy to read and patient friendly.”