Bassett Healthcare Network Receives Prestigious White Coat Award from Surescripts in Recognition of Prescription Accuracy

Cooperstown, N.Y. - Bassett Healthcare Network recently received Surescripts' White Coat Award in recognition of its efforts advancing prescription accuracy and patient safety. Surescripts is a health information company that services health systems, pharmacies, and electronic health records vendors across the nation. It specifically recognized Bassett for its successful adoption and use of its RxChange communication tool.

"At Bassett, we wanted e-prescription technology to make the process safer as well as faster," explains Gretchen Hodgdon, MD, division chief of General Internal Medicine and Primary Care at Bassett Healthcare Network. "When we started using our prescription system, most commercial pharmacies could accept new scripts electronically, but not script changes or cancellations. That could result in multiple active prescriptions if medications or dosages changed. That's a big patient safety issue. We had to wait for the national pharmacies to catch up with what we wanted."

Dr. Hodgdon, along with Travis Cobb, Willow/Beacon clinical applications supervisor; Heather Brown, Inpatient/Willow clinical applications manager; and Sherri Murphey, nurse manger at Bassett Medical Center's Primary Care Clinic and A.O. Fox Hospital's physician practices, monitored pharmacy industry progress. In early 2019 when they began the project, only 30 percent of area pharmacies were prepared to receive script change messages. In 2021, when over 70 percent of area pharmacies were prepared to receive script changes, the team decided it was time to go live with a fully integrated system. After a trial pilot program, Bassett's system became fully electronic this year.

"This is better than the old days of paper scripts," says Dr. Hodgdon. "Back then, there would still be two paper scripts on file. Now, not only can I delete the outdated scripts from the file, but the system also runs checks and alerts me of similar scripts or other drugs in the same class."

"Surescripts' White Coat Award winners are committed to leveraging technology to increase patient safety, accelerate time to therapy, and help patients get the best possible care through their efforts to create clear and accurate e-prescriptions," says Joe Montler, chief customer officer of Surescripts, in the company's official release. "We applaud not only their gains in prescription accuracy, but their remarkable progress moving the entire health care industry forward."

Click here to learn more about the White Coat Award and Surscripts' mission.