Investor’s Business Daily Profiles New Electronic Prescription Network

Investor's Business Daily yesterday profiled SureScripts, which plans to launch a new electronic prescription network that connects physicians and pharmacists. SureScripts, based in Alexandria, Va., last week enlisted several pharmacy and supermarket chains to participate in the network, a move that company officials hope will attract physicians to participate. "It's always been a chicken-and-egg question of whom do you connect first, physicians or pharmacies?" SureScripts CEO Kevin Hutchinson said, adding, "We've taken the position that pharmacies need to be first. Once physicians see it in their local markets, they're more likely to connect." Under the network, SureScripts will send prescriptions to pharmacies from physicians through a "transaction engine," Hutchinson said. The shift from paper to electronic prescriptions could help reduce medication errors and costs, SureScripts officials said. In the past month, several large retail chains, such as Costco, Kmart, Safeway and A&P, have agreed to promote the use of the SureScripts network in their pharmacies. In addition, about two-thirds of the nation's pharmacy chains have expressed support for the SureScripts network, Business Daily reports. SureScripts plans to introduce the network later this month. The National Community Pharmacists Association and the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, which represent a combined 55,000 pharmacies, founded SureScripts to help reduce costs for member pharmacies (Howell, Investor's Business Daily, 12/9).

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