Driving Patient Safety With New Pharmacy HIT Standards

In Pharmacy Times, Mindy Smith, Senior Vice President, Government & Professional Affairs, sheds light on pharmacy standards for electronic healthcare transactions from the National Council for Prescription Drug Programs (NCPDP). She writes, due to these standards, you can pick up a prescription at a pharmacy and pay a co-pay on the spot or know immediately if it is covered by insurance.

Mindy also points to the importance of work being done to use emerging science and technology to further develop, validate and advance the quality of care with new medication and patient safety initiatives, including a grant from the NCPDP Foundation. According to Mindy, there is great opportunity to build on this work and advance patient safety. As Mindy notes, rather than adopting medication formularies that use a one-size-fits-all approach, health plans could gauge cumulative medication risk to help optimize med regimens.