Hurricane Irma is expected to cause catastrophic destruction across Puerto Rico, Florida, and possibly other states, even as the Gulf Coast is working to recover from Hurricane Harvey. Many healthcare facilities and pharmacies are already unavailable for extended periods, and others soon will be. As the waters subside, patients in affected areas may be displaced, many care locations will be temporarily closed, and prescribing patterns could be disrupted due to evacuations, power outages, and massive flooding across the region.
To help address these healthcare delivery challenges, DrFirst is offering its mobile medication platform, iPrescribeSM, free for all prescribers in the hurricane affected and evacuation support areas. Physicians can use iPrescribe to access patients’ medication history, ensuring that providers have the critical information they need to extend effective care. In addition, physicians will be able to write electronic prescriptions for patients and direct them to an available pharmacy to fill the prescriptions. In addition to offering the free mobile app, DrFirst is providing on-call emergency registration.
Emergency enablement of medication records, mobile prescribing, and medication management is available to all prescribers and physicians in the following locations and organizations:
— Existing DrFirst customers, which include more than 300 EHR partners, in hurricane-affected states including Texas, Louisiana, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, and North Carolina. The affected states may be expanded as other areas are declared federal disaster or states of emergency based on the path of Hurricane Irma. All interested parties should text to 66866 and use keyword IPRESCRIBE to initiate the process.
— Organizations in affected areas that are not currently DrFirst clients are also eligible for this offer, including those utilizing any EHR system or ambulatory EHR practice management systems. All interested parties should text to 66866 and use keyword IPRESCRIBE to initiate the process.
— Disaster relief organizations, such as the Red Cross, are eligible for this offer for all prescribing providers supporting these organizations. All interested parties should text to 66866 and use keyword IPRESCRIBE to initiate the process.
— Provider organizations supporting evacuees of hurricane-affected areas, even if they are not directly affected by the path of Hurricane Irma. All interested parties should text to 66866 and use keyword IPRESCRIBE to initiate the process.
Prescribers can use iPrescribe regardless of the EHR system used by their physician’s practice or hospital. DrFirst will provide physicians with a complete digital record of all prescriptions written so they can be updated into the primary EHR system once it is available.
“The practice of medicine cannot be put on hold because of natural disasters,” said G. Cameron Deemer, president of DrFirst. “DrFirst wants to make its resources and technology available to all providers to help ensure care delivery. During a disaster, healthcare is paramount even when provider facilities are not available.”
DrFirst employees are standing ready and on call to enable emergency registration of providers.
To take advantage of this offer, physicians only need to text to 66866 and use keyword IPRESCRIBE. A link to the registration page will be sent to via text and a DrFirst employee will quickly contact the healthcare provider to validate identity and complete the required registration. The application can be downloaded from the iTunes or Google Play stores.
If you have any questions, please reach out to DrFirst Support at 1-866-263-6512.
Related Coverage
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- CentraState Medical Center Streamlines Administration of Medication Education
- Duane Reade Media Alert in Response to Hurricane Irene
For more reporting on this topic, see our Prescription Drugs and Pharmacy news hub.