ePrescribing Dashboard
2008 Florida Metrics
E-prescribing was on the increase in Florida in 2008. The number of e-prescription transactions, pharmacies activated to receive electronic prescriptions, e-prescribing physicians, and patient medication record requests all showed positive growth in the year. SureScripts estimates that approximately 103 million prescriptions could have been sent electronically in Florida during 2008. Data reported from SureScripts-RxHub and eRx Network during 2008 show 4,465,025 electronic prescriptions were transmitted. This data indicates an annual 2008 e-prescribing rate of 4.33%, an increase from the annual e-prescribing rate of 1.6% in 2007.
Data reported from SureScripts-RxHub show that there were 6,157 total pharmacies in Florida in 2008. Of these, 4,378 or 71.33% of all pharmacies in Florida were activated to receive electronic prescriptions in 2008, an increase from 63% of pharmacies in 2007. Among all pharmacies across the state in every Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), except Miami-Ft. Lauderdale, more than half are activated to receive e-prescriptions. The graph below shows the MSAs in Florida, the number and percentage of pharmacies activated for e-prescribing and total pharmacies per MSA.
The graph below shows that while an average of 71.1% of all pharmacies in the state are activated to receive e-prescriptions, this percentage changes according to the region of the state. Most of the Metropolitan Statistical Areas in Florida show a higher percentage of activated pharmacies, for example 81.8% in Tampa, 79.9% in Orlando and 82.4% in Jacksonville. Panama City has the highest percentage in the state, with 88.3% of pharmacies e-prescribing. The overall average is deflated by the much lower 48.3% of pharmacies activated to receive e-prescriptions in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale MSA and by the fact that 24.7% of all Florida pharmacies are in this MSA. One reason for this low number of activated pharmacies is the amount of small, family-owned pharmacies in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale MSA.
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In 2007 the highest monthly total of e-prescribing healthcare professionals was 2,331. The highest monthly total of e-prescribing physicians in 2008 was 4,492, an increase of 92.75% from 2007.
Based on statistics provided by SureScripts-RxHub and eRx Network, the number of health care professionals who are ePrescribing (ePrescribers) increased by 80% between January and December of 2008, from 2,470 in January to 4,492 in December as shown in the below graph. For the same period, there were an average of 166 new ePrescribers per month and each ePrescriber wrote an average of 158 ePrescriptions per month. This compares to 2007 when 92 was the highest average of ePrescriptions per ePrescriber. This indicates a 72% increase of ePrescriptions per ePrescriber from 2007 to 2008. These data show a steady upward trend in the number of ePrescribers and the number of ePrescriptions written per ePrescriber.
The below graph also shows the number of new prescriptions plus prescription refills sent via ePrescribing in January through December 2008. In January there were 273,903 ePrescriptions or 3.2% of all prescriptions, which increased to a high of 588,213 ePrescriptions or 6.9% of all prescriptions in December 2008. This shows a 114.8% increase in Florida ePrescriptions between January and December 2008. At the end of 2007, 1.6% of all prescriptions in Florida were ePrescriptions.
Florida's 2008 end of 4th quarter 6.9% e-prescribing rate exceeds the 2007 end-of-year national e-prescribing rate of 2% and achieves 99% of the 2008 national end-of-year projected 7% e-prescribing benchmark. National quarterly projected benchmarksare calculated using the range between the national 2007 end-of-year e-prescribing rate of 2% and the national projected 2008 end-of-year e-prescribing rate of 7%, as projected by SureScripts and published in their "National Progress Report on E-Prescribing". This report may be viewed in its entirety on the SureScripts-RxHub web site at: http://www.surescripts.com/pdf/National-Progress-Report-on-EPrescribing-1.pdf
Florida more than achieved its goal for 2008 with a very close match to the 7% national ePrescribing rate projected by SureScripts.
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The graph below shows the total number of e-prescriptions, the number of new e-prescriptions, refill requests and the number of e-prescription refill authorizations sent in 2008. In January there were 273,903 total e-prescriptions, which increased to a high of 588,213 e-prescriptions in December. This constitutes a 114.8% increase in e-prescriptions across the year. The change in transactions also demonstrates an increase in the actual number of e-prescriptions submitted by each physician. In January, each physician submitted an average of 110 e-prescriptions. By December, that average climbed to an average of 131 e-prescriptions per physician. These numbers indicate that e-prescribing transactions increased not only because there were more physicians writing them, but because physicians wrote more e-prescriptions throughout the year.
Total e-prescription transactions do not tell the entire story of e-prescribing, though. There are different types of e-prescribing transactions, new prescriptions, refills requests and refill responses. Figure 8 breaks down the e-prescribing transactions into these component types, based on statistics reported by SureScripts-RxHub and eRx Network. Clearly, new electronic prescriptions make up the greatest number of transactions in 2008, at about 70% of all electronic prescriptions. These figures suggest that much of the e-prescribing activity in 2008 came about through physicians moving from writing paper prescriptions into the use of e-prescribing systems. However, the growth rate for electronic refills at 124% exceeded the 111% growth rate of new electronic prescriptions in 2008. To the extent that physicians write prescriptions that need refills, the number of refills will tend to follow the growth curve of new prescriptions, as is indicated below. Refill requests follow a similar curve as refill responses, though with a slightly greater number of transactions, indicating that not all prescriptions are refilled. The growth rate through the year for refill requests was 132%.
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The below graph shows a comparison of the number of patient medication record requests to electronic prescriptions and the percentage of record requests to electronic prescriptions per month in 2008. In January, there were 273,903 electronic prescriptions and 175,017 record requests. Electronic prescriptions exceeded record requests by 64% during January. By December the number of record requests had increased significantly to reached 852,640 while the number of electronic prescriptions increased at a slower rate to equal 588,213. Record requests exceeded electronic prescriptions by 145% during December. The rate of increase for record requests at 387% overtook the rate of increase for electronic prescriptions at 115% by a margin of 272%. This data indicates that physicians are quickly realizing the benefits of utilizing their access to patient medication record information.
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The graph below shows data from SureScripts-RxHub that compares the number of patient ePrescription records requested by prescribers to view medication information and payor eligibility to the number of records found/returned to the prescribers providing a percentage of records found for each Florida MSA. The lowest percentage of records found to records requested is shown in the Daytona Beach. MSA at 39.2% and the highest percentage of records found to records requested is shown in the Tallahassee MSA at 71.2%.
The 0% shown in two of the MSAs in the graph below is only an indication that data was not received separately for these MSAs. It does not indicate that there was no record activity in these areas.
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The graph below shows the total number of patient record requests compared to the number of record requesting prescribers.
As shown, there was a substantual increase in the number of patient medication record requests from 175,017 in January to 852,640 in December 2008. This signifies a 387% increase in the number of records requested during 2008.
There was also a significant increase in the number of record requesting prescribers from 2,421 in January 2008 to 6,633 in December 2008. This is a 174% increase in the number of record requesting prescribers. Similar to the graphs above, this also indicates increased system use.
By presenting data on all electronic transactions across Florida, it is possible to build a picture of network activity that comprises the cycle of e-prescribing, from requesting eligibility to refilling prescriptions.
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