Talk:Surescripts

Restarting a Surescripts page
Original page was deleted in 2009 due to copyright infringements. Starting a new stub with verifiable, notable resources for future expansion. The company's notability has also grown since 2009. No COI with the company, but I know the industry and realized with surprise that they didn't have a page when I did a search earlier. Alaynestone (talk) 22:26, 6 September 2015 (UTC)

Request edit on 01 August 2018
'''Context: This is a proposal for new content (see below) to modify and replace the existing content. I am a COI editor, employed by Surescripts as a copywriter. This proposal is brought in good faith and with every attempt to avoid self-promotion and poor references. Please help review and let me know what's permissible and what isn't. Thank you!'''

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Surescripts is an American health information technology company headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, near Washington, D.C., with offices in Portland, Oregon, Minneapolis and Raleigh, North Carolina.

Surescripts operates a national interoperable health information network to facilitate health information exchange of medical records and give healthcare professionals the information they need within their electronic health record or pharmacy system to make informed care decisions on behalf of their patients.

As of 2014, 96 percent of U.S. community pharmacies and 70 percent of U.S. physicians used the Surescripts network, according to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.


 * History

In 2001, Surescripts was formed as SureScript Systems by the National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS) and the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) with the intent of replacing paper prescriptions with electronic prescriptions which are generally regarded as more secure and accurate.

In 2008, Surescripts merged with RxHub which was formed by a consortium of pharmacy benefit management companies comprising CVS Caremark, Express Scripts and Medco Health Solutions. The merger between Surescripts and RxHub brought two historically competing entities together—pharmacists and PBMs—to promote electronic prescribing and create a connection between pharmacies and doctors.

Under the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003, Surescripts took part in a pilot program with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to employ the SCRIPT standard (as promulgated by the National Council for Prescription Drug Programs (NCPDP). According to NCPDP, the SCRIPT standard was meant to facilitate the transfer of prescription data among pharmacies, prescribers, intermediaries, facilities and payers to achieve greater interoperability in the industry.

Former Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt wrote in a 2007 report to Congress that the “diversity of stakeholders involved” in the Surescripts pilot “was one of its most defining aspects.” This diversity prefigured the development of the Surescripts Network Alliance comprising hundreds of organizations from different areas of the healthcare industry such as EHRs, PBMs, pharmacies and clinicians. In the report, Leavitt referred to Surescripts as “the nation’s largest provider of electronic prescribing networking and certification services.”


 * Goals

According to Tom Skelton, chief executive officer of Surescripts, the overarching objective of the Surescripts network is to get patients’ medical information into the hands of physicians, pharmacists and other members of the care team at the “point of care,” like an emergency room or pharmacy.

This is because, as Skelton pointed out in the 2018 interview, despite available technologies, “Forty-eight percent of all diagnostic errors are still due to a lack of access to the appropriate information at critical points in the care process.” Skelton’s statement refers to the interoperability “data gap” in U.S. healthcare that hinders informed clinical decision-making and risks patient safety as a result.

In terms of Surescripts' broader advocacy in the healthcare industry, Hurricane Katrina and the opioid epidemic serve as two examples.

In 2005, Surescripts helped launch the web portal katrinahealth.org to help victims and evacuees of Hurricane Katrina get access to their prescription records. In 2017, Surescripts partnered with Allscripts to help healthcare professionals care for patients displaced by Hurricane Harvey. Skelton said, “During a natural disaster this information is critical for pharmacists who may need to deliver medications outside of normal practice patterns. In some situations, it is a matter of life or death for critically ill patients who have been displaced and may have lost their medications or can’t recall their medication list.”

Surescripts has addressed the opioids crisis through a combination of health information technology such as Electronic Prescriptions for Controlled Substances (EPCS), responding to the call of physicians like Atul Gawande, who cited Surescripts data in the Annals of Surgery. Gawande stated that EPCS prevents forged prescriptions, reduces dosing errors, allows physicians to cross-reference prescriptions in prescription monitoring program databases and simplifies prescribing between the physician and patient.


 * Achievements

The Surescripts network facilitated 13.7 billion secure health data transactions in 2017, a 26 percent increase over 2016, including:


 * 1.74 billion e-prescriptions
 * 3.1 million real-time prescription benefit transactions
 * 1.46 billion medication histories
 * 25.9 million clinical direct messages

In regard to patient data privacy and security, federal legislation like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act require compliance with safeguards to prevent data breach and the mishandling of medical information. Surescripts is Common Security Framework (CSF) certified by the Health Information Trust Alliance (HITRUST), which sets forth hundreds of requirements to ensure compliance with these laws and regulations.


 * Criticism

Data journalist Fred Trotter has characterized Surescripts as a monopoly.

Cjbradley 81 (talk) 19:52, 1 August 2018 (UTC)

Reply 01-AUG-2018

 * 1) The History section briefly mentions the rationale under which this organization was started. It also mentions a merger with a consortium and the entrance into a pilot program. The history section ends with prosaic words of support from a former HHS official. Two of these four items are already in the Wikipedia article. The third might be added, while the fourth is actually 2 quotes — one of which is unreferenced.
 * 2) The Goals section, and things like it such as ideals, are inherently problematic. Goals speak to a desired,  future state of affairs that cannot — at the moment they are professed — be measured, quantified or evaluated. At least not until that future arrives and a balance sheet may be drawn up to see how things went. By themselves, "Goals" increase the requirements for lofty, hopeful language to be used when describing them, using phrases which remain positive and forward looking. In its extreme form, this type of language can border on storytelling, which must be guarded against. Including items such as goals in the article is not likely to occur without lengthy discussions. With regards to three out of the four references used in the Goals section, one is an interview, the second is an editorial, and the third links to a document whose metadata is not included in the references.
 * 3) The Achievements section contains unreferenced data in the form of a bullet list, a mention about HIPAA, and a repeating of the organizations various certification achievements, none of which are referenced to the organizations making those certifications.
 * 4) The Criticism section, if it were added, would be done so alone without any other sections. This would unbalance the article. Thus, this section too is declined.
 * When these issues are resolved, please feel free to open a new edit request at your earliest convenience.  spintendo   01:46, 2 August 2018 (UTC)

Please note that this section, as in the case of the other sections, was based on the SpaceX Wiki page. It has been removed from this new proposal.

I will submit a revised proposal shortly. Thank you!

Cjbradley 81 (talk) 17:24, 8 August 2018 (UTC)

Request edit on 8 August 2018
Thank you very much for your thoughtful feedback. I look forward to addressing the content violations in order to update the existing Surescripts page.

Please note that with regard to the section headers, I used the SpaceX Wiki page as my template, so I figured that section headers like "Goals" might be permissible. Is that not the case? Additionally, are you able to provide more specific feedback on the policy violations here? I understand that one of the quotes was unreferenced - so I've moved the citation to the end of the paragraph in which the quotes appear. Is that sufficient? In addition, I am unclear on the rest of your comments in terms of how the proposed content violates Wiki’s rules.

Can you be more specific as to what you mean by “lengthy discussions?” I have adjusted this section header to remove the word “goals,” but please also note that I moved the corroborating data (i.e. the “balance sheet” you mention) to support the actualization of these stated objectives to be in closer proximity to the claim. In addition, please note that the Atul Gawande reference is not an editorial, rather a data-based article published in a reputable scholarly publication (Annals of Surgery). Further, can you kindly help me understand what is problematic about referencing an interview?

Cjbradley 81 (talk) 22:11, 8 August 2018 (UTC)

— Preceding unsigned comment added by Cjbradley 81 (talk • contribs) 17:48, 8 August 2018 (UTC)

Revised draft - second submission for consideration

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Surescripts is an American health information technology company headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, near Washington, D.C., with offices in Portland, Oregon, Minneapolis and Raleigh, North Carolina.

Surescripts operates a national interoperable health information network to facilitate health information exchange of medical records and give healthcare professionals the information they need within their electronic health record or pharmacy system to make informed care decisions on behalf of their patients.

As of 2014, 96 percent of U.S. community pharmacies and 70 percent of U.S. physicians used the Surescripts network, according to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

In 2001, Surescripts was formed as SureScript Systems by the National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS) and the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) with the intent of replacing paper prescriptions with electronic prescriptions which are generally regarded as more secure and accurate.

In 2008, Surescripts merged with RxHub which was formed by a consortium of pharmacy benefit management companies comprising CVS Caremark, Express Scripts and Medco Health Solutions. The merger between Surescripts and RxHub brought two historically competing entities together—pharmacists and PBMs—to promote electronic prescribing and create a connection between pharmacies and doctors.

Under the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003, Surescripts took part in a pilot program with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to employ the SCRIPT standard (as promulgated by the National Council for Prescription Drug Programs (NCPDP). According to NCPDP, the SCRIPT standard was meant to facilitate the transfer of prescription data among pharmacies, prescribers, intermediaries, facilities and payers to achieve greater interoperability in the industry.

Former Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt wrote in a 2007 report to Congress that the “diversity of stakeholders involved” in the Surescripts pilot “was one of its most defining aspects.” This diversity prefigured the development of the Surescripts Network Alliance comprising hundreds of organizations from different areas of the healthcare industry such as EHRs, PBMs, pharmacies and clinicians. In the report, Leavitt referred to Surescripts as “the nation’s largest provider of electronic prescribing networking and certification services.”

According to Tom Skelton, chief executive officer of Surescripts, the overarching objective of the Surescripts network is to get patients’ medical information into the hands of physicians, pharmacists and other members of the care team at the “point of care,” like an emergency room or pharmacy.

In terms of Surescripts' broader advocacy in the healthcare industry, Hurricane Katrina and the opioid epidemic serve as two examples.

In 2005, Surescripts helped launch the web portal katrinahealth.org to help victims and evacuees of Hurricane Katrina get access to their prescription records. In 2017, Surescripts partnered with Allscripts to help healthcare professionals care for patients displaced by Hurricane Harvey. Skelton said, “During a natural disaster this information is critical for pharmacists who may need to deliver medications outside of normal practice patterns. In some situations, it is a matter of life or death for critically ill patients who have been displaced and may have lost their medications or can’t recall their medication list.”

Surescripts has addressed the opioids crisis through a combination of health information technology such as Electronic Prescriptions for Controlled Substances (EPCS), responding to the call of physicians like Atul Gawande, who cited Surescripts data in the Annals of Surgery. Gawande stated that EPCS prevents forged prescriptions, reduces dosing errors, allows physicians to cross-reference prescriptions in prescription monitoring program databases and simplifies prescribing between the physician and patient.

Cjbradley 81 (talk) 17:43, 8 August 2018 (UTC)

Reply to edit request 08-AUG-2018
Below you will see where proposals from your request have been quoted with reviewer decisions and feedback inserted underneath, either accepting, declining or otherwise commenting upon your proposal(s). Please read the enclosed notes for information on each request. Also note areas where additional clarification was requested. When this is ready to be provided to the reviewer, please open a new edit request. Thank you!  spintendo   22:58, 8 August 2018 (UTC)

Request edit on 9 August 2018
Thanks for your feedback, Spintendo. I've made revisions and have submitted a third version below for your consideration (please note that this version does not include the requests you've already approved, which I assume you'll incorporate when updating). I am hoping, with the revisions, we can at least make this Gawande reference happen. Thanks!

Surescripts is active in the market for health information technology that helps to address the opioid crisis, such as Electronic Prescriptions for Controlled Substances (EPCS). In the Annals of Surgery, the physician Atul Gawande cited Surescripts data on EPCS. Gawande wrote that EPCS prevents forged prescriptions, reduces dosing errors, allows physicians to cross-reference prescriptions in prescription monitoring program databases and simplifies prescribing between the physician and patient.

Cjbradley 81 (talk) 18:41, 9 August 2018 (UTC)

Reply 9-AUG-2018

 * 1) All approved requests from the previous edit request proposal have been implemented.
 * 2) Stating that EPCS prevents forged prescriptions, reduces dosing errors, allows physicians to cross-reference prescriptions in prescription monitoring program databases and simplifies prescribing between the physician and patient helps to address one side of the opioid crisis, supply. Suggesting that those items all cause Surescripts to "address" the opioid crisis as a whole without impacting the other side, demand, is a leap. The statement should be re-worded to remove this ambiguous implication.    spintendo   19:56, 9 August 2018 (UTC)

Request edit on 10 August 2018
'''I see your point, Spintendo. When you have time, please review the change request below and see if it's OK. And thanks for guiding me through this process.'''

In a 2017 article published in the Annals of Surgery, author and physician Atul Gawande cited Surescripts data on Electronic Prescriptions for Controlled Substances (EPCS), in which Gawande proposed wider adoption of electronic prescribing for opioids among healthcare providers.

Cjbradley 81 (talk) 17:06, 10 August 2018 (UTC)

I think I understand what the report may be saying, and think that your statement might be usable if we:

Question: Narrow down what data Gawande is talking about in the AofS article. Gawande mentions several points in the article and we need to narrow down which of these are the ones we are speaking of.

Question: What that data tells us.

Question: How this demonstrates, from what the data is telling us, that Surescript's strategy can be an effective tool in mitigating the ill-effects of the opioid crisis from a supply-side view.

Does this sound correct? Please advise.  spintendo   17:46, 10 August 2018 (UTC)


 * Since Gawande cites a report made by the Surescripts company, that indicates he trusts them to collect the data correctly and report honestly. But how do Surescripts' own products fit into the picture? Does Surescripts play some role in the system in NY state, where it seems that electronic prescribing is now required for opioids? And what exactly is the 'SCRIPT' standard which is not explained in the article? (SCRIPT is a disambiguation page, and none of the entries it includes appears to be a standard for electronic prescribing). The Surescripts web site sounds very high-minded and the work sounds important but it's hard to get any specifics of what the company does or sells. EdJohnston (talk) 18:00, 10 August 2018 (UTC)


 * Answer: 81% of pharmacies are enabled to receive computerized opioid prescriptions but only 8% of physicians are in practices that have enabled that capability and use it. Cjbradley 81 (talk) 20:04, 13 August 2018 (UTC)
 * Answer: The data tells us that EPCS technology exists but is under-utilized among healthcare providers. Cjbradley 81 (talk) 20:04, 13 August 2018 (UTC)
 * Answer: Gawande’s proposal – wider adoption of electronic prescribing for opioids among healthcare providers – might help to mitigate the ill-effects of the opioid crisis because EPCS, as Gawande writes, prevents forged prescriptions, reduces dosing errors, allows physicians to cross-reference prescriptions in prescription monitoring program databases and simplifies prescribing between the physician and patient. Cjbradley 81 (talk) 20:04, 13 August 2018 (UTC)


 * I agree with EdJohnston's question asking how SureScript's technology is relevant (i.e., what role does it play or will it play in the need to address the Opioid crisis.) If their products and services are very relevant to addressing this need, then the report from Gawande runs the risk of sounding like an advertisement. Even if it wasn't meant as an advertisement, I'm sure that there is a part of Gawande that desires some sort of change taking place here (or at least they are advocating for this change based on the data they have collected) and so highlighting their report and only that report here might appear as self serving. Is it not enough for the article to just describe the company, or does it also have to describe the issues the company is "fighting for" (for lack of a better term) which is what the Gawande article does.   spintendo   22:17, 15 August 2018 (UTC)


 * Surescripts technology (electronic prescribing generally; e-prescribing for controlled substances specifically) does what Gawande describes: prevents forged prescriptions, reduces dosing errors, allows physicians to cross-reference prescriptions in prescription monitoring program databases and simplifies prescribing between the physician and patient. In other words, Surescripts helps facilitate prescriptions (including opioid prescriptions) between the physician and patient, but the underlying technology itself helps doctors make the right prescribing decisions (or perhaps better prescribing decisions, including a decision that involves whether or not to prescribe an opioid painkiller to any given patient - the big advantage of the information at hand with electronic prescriptions, in contrast to traditional paper scripts). To answer your question about the Wikipedia article itself, our goal is to expand the page so that it is more than a "stub," with as much description about the company as possible. For many people, Wikipedia is one of the first places they turn when they want to gather information about a subject, so we wanted to make the Surescripts page as robust as possible. Cjbradley 81 (talk) 18:29, 16 August 2018 (UTC)

Request edit on 29 October 2018
Can we add the following in some form to the Surescripts page?

(1) More than half of Maine prescribers are now EPCS-enabled https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/more-half-maine-prescribers-are-now-epcs-enabled "E-prescribing vendor Surescripts has helped many physicians in Maine conducting EPCS [electronic prescribing for controlled substances]. The vendor is an example of other organizations joining state organizations to help push the adoption of EPCS."

(2) Add External Links section and include this URL https://surescripts.com/

(3) How a Macon patient saved $6,500 on prescriptions this year https://www.macon.com/news/local/article216393985.html "A new prescription price transparency tool, developed by the health technology companies Cerner and Surescripts, allows doctors to compare the prices of multiple similar drugs before prescribing their patients."

(4) Surescripts won Frost & Sullivan's New Product Innovation award in 2018 https://bpawardsblog.frost.com/surescripts?utm_campaign=Company%20News&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=65729921&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--C04J9T--Lxhl0E4oVcE08FBHz08V_VxTtMQmSIZPNlgz9_RYLLkl9waVxNd4j5fSX6_z-y2REGKbeRIKm3A4xdDoGb99J_fToXt_H6gwafat84d0&_hsmi=65729921 "This award recognizes companies that have successfully introduced new and innovative products that demonstrate exceptional product quality and customer value."

Cjbradley 81 (talk) 21:13, 29 October 2018 (UTC)

Reply 29-OCT-2018
Regards,  Spintendo   22:11, 29 October 2018 (UTC)
 * 1) ✅ External links section added.
 * 2) ❌ Frost & Sullivan is independently notable but their awards are not.
 * 3) ❌ The benefit optimization mentioned as a result of the use of the PPT tool is part and parcel of the e-prescription and health information exchange capabilities already described in the article.
 * 4) ❌ The Maine prescribers claim would benefit from WP:SECONDARY sources independent of the subject.

Thank you! Cjbradley 81 (talk) 18:03, 30 October 2018 (UTC)