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Leading Maryland Healthcare Organizations Join To
Form New Safety Through Electronic Prescibing (STEP) Initiative
Key Stakeholders Working Together to Encourage Voluntary Adoption of Electronic Prescribing Throughout Maryland

Easton, Maryland, February 8, 2005-Twenty-seven of the leading healthcare organizations in Maryland today announced the formation of the Maryland Safety Through Electronic Prescribing (STEP) Initiative. The Maryland STEP Initiative is the first of its kind in the United States. Its primary goal is to accelerate the voluntary adoption of electronic prescribing among physician practices in Maryland to improve patient safety.

"We are pleased to be a part of this collaborative effort of influential players in Maryland's healthcare community," said T. Michael Preston, Executive Director of MedChi, The Maryland State Medical Society. "This collaborative group has an important leadership role to play in educating the healthcare community about electronic prescribing, how it works, the benefits, and how practices can get started."

One of the Maryland STEP Initiative's many goals is to provide a collaborative forum for leading stakeholders to address challenges of implementation and barriers to adoption. The participants believe that patients, physician practices, pharmacies and payers will benefit from widespread adoption. In particular, participants emphasize that patient safety will be improved through reduced errors related to misinterpreted handwriting and verbal communications, unclear abbreviations or dose designations, and fax problems. Participants recognize that real time access to information on drug interactions and patient allergies enabled through electronic prescribing also improves patient safety.

"Electronic prescribing has important patient safety and practice efficiency benefits and should be implemented with a migration or integration path towards use of a full electronic health record," said Michael Tooke, MD, Chief Medical Officer of Delmarva Foundation. "Some physicians are not ready for a full electronic health record and for them, electronic prescribing can be a very good step in the right direction."

Maryland STEP Initiative participants acknowledge that electronic prescribing will streamline communications between pharmacies and physician practices, which will lead to reduced calls and faxes to clarify prescription information, authorize prescription renewals, and check formulary and benefits eligibility. Furthermore, these improvements in the prescribing process will impact patient satisfaction and convenience by creating fewer trips to pharmacies and shorter waiting times.

"Pharmacies are committed to communicating electronically with physician practices to improve the safety and efficiency of the prescribing process. Two-way connectivity between physician practices and pharmacies streamlines communications and will improve both patient safety and practice efficiency," said Howard Schiff, Executive Director of the Maryland Pharmacists Association. "In Maryland, 70% of pharmacies are able to communicate electronically with physician practices today and the number continues to grow. The pharmacies are ready and the network is in place, increasing benefits will be achieved as adoption and utilization become more widespread."

Adoption of information technology such as electronic prescribing in healthcare has been slow for a number of reasons. There are concerns that available technology solutions are not perfect and may not interface with existing practice management systems. Some physicians are unwilling to incur costs while other stakeholders benefit. Other physicians feel unequipped to evaluate alternative technologies and assess the impact on their workflow. In essence, they find the complexity of the decision process overwhelming.

The group has formulated a vision statement and is developing a plan to raise awareness and encourage adoption of electronic prescribing throughout Maryland. This will include reaching out to physicians and practice managers with education sessions, workshops, web conferences, dissemination of case studies, white papers, and other assistance to help them realize the benefits of electronic prescribing.

Participating stakeholders include:

• Aetna
• CareFirst Blue Cross Blue Shield
• Community Pharmacy - CVS, Eckerd, EPIC Pharmacies, Inc., Giant, Kmart, NeighborCare, RiteAid, Safeway, Shoppers Food & Pharmacy, Walgreens, Wal-Mart and Weis
• Delmarva Foundation
• John Hopkins Community Physicians
• Maryland Academy of Family Physicians
• Maryland Health Care Commission
• Maryland Medical Group Management Association
• Maryland Patient Safety Center
• Maryland Pharmacists Association
• MedChi, The Maryland State Medical Society
• MedStar Health
• Mid-Atlantic Medical Services, LLC (MAMSI)
• Primary Care Coalition of Montgomery County, MD, Inc.
• RxHub
• SureScripts

About the Maryland STEP Initiative

The Maryland STEP Initiative was launched by the participants to demonstrate national leadership by accelerating the voluntary adoption of electronic prescribing in Maryland. This group is collaborating to address financial and technical barriers to adoption by committing educational, financial and policy resources to this effort.

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About Delmarva Foundation
Delmarva Foundation is a national, not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving healthcare quality in over 20 states. Since 1973, Delmarva has assisted in improving care in hospitals, nursing homes, home health agencies, medical practices and health plans. Delmarva performs quality improvement, quality assurance, utilization review, external quality review and Program Safeguard activities. The company's corporate headquarters are located in Easton, Maryland with other offices in Baltimore, Maryland; Washington, DC; Columbia, South Carolina; Tampa, Florida; and Tallahassee, Florida. For more information, please visit Delmarva Foundation on the web at www.delmarvafoundation.org.