Orchard Manor goes live with electronic prescribing

Provided photo – Orchard Manor recently switched to electronic prescribing. This group includes, from left: Dave Denny, administrator; Brittany Sloan, quality assurance nurse; Dr. Das, medical director; Heidi Smith, director of nursing; and Katy Owczarczak, assistant director of nursing.

MEDINA – Orchard Manor Rehabilitation and Nursing Center has gone live with electronic prescribing.

Brittany Sloan, the facility lead and project manager, was tasked with integrating physicians and nurses to a new branch of the facilities’ current electronic medical records, Point Click Care.

Since February, Sloan has spent hours preparing both staff and the computer database for the integration. Orchard Manor made the transition on March 16, joining only one other facility in New York State to prescribe electronically following the 2013 declaration mandating electronic prescriptions by March 27, 2016.

Howard Zucker MD, NYS Commissioner of Health, extended a waiver statewide, extending the integration of electronic prescriptions deadline to March 26, 2017.

The state is requiring, as of March 27, all prescriptions written in New York State to be transmitted electronically from the prescriber directly to the pharmacy.

This requirement is a key component of New York’s I-STOP initiative that is focused on helping curb the abuse of prescription medication throughout the state, the Governor’s Office said.

“This reform will improve patient safety, reduce the number of fraudulent or stolen prescriptions, and help combat prescription drug abuse across New York,” Governor Cuomo said. “Addiction can affect anyone from any walk of life and this administration will continue to use every tool it can to combat this epidemic and provide help to those in need.”