ICERx.org to Provide Prescription Medication Information for Evacuees and Other Disaster Victims

Business Wire, June 4, 2007

Public Service Initiative Will Help Ensure Continuity of Care for Victims of Disaster by Providing Health Care Professionals with Access to Patient Medication Histories

TAMPA, Fla. -- In response to the lessons learned in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, a collaborative of public and private organizations has launched ICERx.org (In Case of Emergency Prescription Database), an online resource that provides licensed prescribers and pharmacists caring for disaster victims with secure access to a patient's comprehensive medication history.

"The health care community as a whole learned a great many lessons from Hurricane Katrina, including the critical need to make prescription medication information available to those caring for evacuees nationwide," said David Medvedeff, PharmD, President, Informed Decisions, LLC, a Gold Standard Inc. company. "While we hope that we never again have to respond to another situation like Katrina, we must nonetheless be prepared for the eventuality. That is why ICERx.org was created."

"When disaster strikes, we must be prepared to do all that we can to safeguard the health and welfare of our patients and the greater public. A critical element in that preparation is assuring patients' access to needed medications while protecting the privacy of their medical information," said James J. James, M.D., DrPH, MHA, Director of the American Medical Association (AMA) Center for Public Health Preparedness and Disaster Response. "We cannot predict what specific emergency or disaster might affect us, but through better pre-event planning and preparation we can better ensure our patients receive necessary medical care in times of crisis."

ICERx.org (www.icerx.org) is a public service initiative made possible through the collaborative efforts of the AMA, Informed Decisions, the National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS), the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA), RxHub and SureScripts, as well as state Medicaid and other government agencies.

Through ICERx.org, authorized physicians and pharmacists who are assisting disaster-affected individuals can obtain the medication records of evacuees. The prescription history information is pooled from a variety of sources participating in ICERx.org, including the nation's community pharmacies, pharmacy benefit managers and state Medicaid programs.

Armed with this information, health care professionals will be able to safely renew prescriptions for evacuees and effectively assist in the coordination of care, while avoiding harmful prescription errors and potential drug interactions.

"Hurricane Katrina provided a very vivid illustration of what happens when a community's health care delivery system is compromised. Through ICERx, pharmacists anywhere in the country are now able to securely access the prescription history of a patient displaced due to a disaster, thus providing these individuals with faster, safer access to the life-saving prescription medications they need while protecting against prescription errors and drug interactions," said Bruce Roberts, RPh, Executive Vice President and CEO, NCPA.

"On a daily basis, community pharmacy adds tremendous value to the health care system and improves patient outcomes. NACDS is excited about the ability of ICERx to safeguard the relationship between patients and community pharmacy in the event of an emergency," added Steven C. Anderson, IOM, CAE, President and CEO of NACDS.

During periods of emergency, licensed health care professionals who have registered on ICERx.org can login to the online prescription database, where they will have access to:

* Evacuee prescription history information, including drug name, dosage, quantity, day supply, and the name of the provider who wrote the prescription and the pharmacy that filled it

* Available patient clinical alerts, including drug interaction, therapeutic duplication and elderly alerts

* Clinical pharmacology drug reference information, including drug monographs, interaction reports and the drug identifier tool

"RxHub fully supports ICERx and the efforts to provide patient specific prescription information to physicians, at the point of care, during a state of emergency," said JP Little, Chief Operating Officer, RxHub. "As we have worked together in the past to provide patient information for those affected by hurricanes Katrina and Rita, we will continue to provide access to critical patient information through our secured connection to ICERx.org."

"To be fully prepared and able to respond as quickly as possible during a crisis, the nation must accelerate its push for wide scale adoption of certified electronic prescribing and electronic medical record (EMR) software," said Rick Ratliff, COO, SureScripts. "Between now and when we achieve this important national goal, ICERx.org will provide a safety net, allowing all physicians and pharmacists to provide better care to those in need during an emergency."

Prescription data is available only to licensed health care professionals who have registered on ICERx.org.