At an event at the National Press Club in New York City in June, Surescripts announced that prescribers in Massachusetts now route more than 20% of their prescriptions electronically, followed by Rhode Island prescribers at 17%. States were ranked according to the number of prescriptions routed electronically as a percentage of the total number of prescriptions eligible for electronic routing.

Also, Tennessee and Vermont were recipients of the fourth annual Safe-Rx award. The governors of both states were on hand to receive the award.

Historically, the Safe-Rx awards have been based on an analysis of data from new prescriptions and refills responded to electronically and routed over the Surescripts network.

Next year, Surescripts will measure use of not one, but three steps in electronic prescribing: 1) electronically accessing a patient’s prescription benefit information, 2) with a patient’s consent, electronically accessing that patient’s prescription history from pharmacies and payers, and 3) electronically routing the patient’s prescription to his or her choice of pharmacy and electronically reviewing and responding to a renewal request that pharmacies send to physicians for approval.