Justin Hajek, assistant vice president of program management at DialCare
Photo: Justin Hajek
Founded in 2017, DialCare is a virtual healthcare company that connects patients to licensed providers through a multispecialty telehealth platform. Its offerings include urgent care, mental health counseling, tele-dentistry and others – all within a unified patient experience.
DialCare differentiates itself with an "on-demand, Uber-style" model, allowing patients to access care 24/7 without needing to schedule appointments in advance.
THE CHALLENGE
In 2022, the telehealth organization just wasn't satisfied with its e-prescribing system. It was embarking on a major system rebuild, and modernizing the e-prescribing experience became a strategic priority.
DialCare leaders decided they needed a new vendor – one that could help with the transition and innovate with them.
PROPOSAL
The healthcare organization had quickly grown to a size where the technology of vendor DoseSpot became essential, explained Justin Hajek, assistant vice president of program management at DialCare.
"It would resolve issues like frequent phone calls and conversations between pharmacists and providers, ultimately saving time and improving the patient experience by eliminating ambiguity around prescription readiness," he explained.
"As a team, we discussed what it would resolve, how it would eliminate back and forth phone calls, and improve the patient experience," he continued. "It was clear the benefits would far outweigh any implementation challenges."
MEETING THE CHALLENGE
DoseSpot was integrated directly into the DialCare telehealth platform, enabling clinicians to access all necessary information within their existing workflow. This integration ensures patient allergies and medication history are readily available to clinicians when prescribing, helping them make informed decisions and optimize treatment plans, Hajek said.
"An administrative clinical team was involved in the setup, particularly with compliance aspects and monitoring for transmission errors," he recalled.
"The implementation process itself was very smooth – both the documentation and the hands-on vendor team made it one of the smoother integrations we've experienced when adding a technology to our DialCare platform," he added.
RESULTS
DialCare has achieved several measurable benefits since adopting the new e-prescribing system, specifically surrounding the technology's Favorites feature.
"It's a one-click feature so if there are 10 most frequently prescribed medications, you don't have to type in that dosage and drug every single time," Hajek explained. "This feature alone reduced provider time by approximately 75% for frequently prescribed medications.
"There also has been a decrease in transmission errors compared with previous systems," he continued. "And a significant time savings from transitioning away from manual processes – reducing prescription processing from 30 minutes to two minutes."
Anecdotally, providers have shared that they find the e-prescribing experience less burdensome, allowing them to focus more on patient care. They've really liked DoseSpot's user-friendly interface – compared to their older e-prescribing system, which was a bit outdated and much less intuitive, he added.
"As a company, DialCare has grown significantly, so with that kind of time savings we can do more," he said. "If our providers are spending less time managing prescriptions, they have more time to treat the patient, which is what they are trained to do and where they really want to spend their time."
And administrative dashboards give DialCare's support staff clearer reporting on prescription transmissions and potential errors. Teams can proactively address issues before patients encounter problems at the pharmacy.
ADVICE FOR OTHERS
Hajek strongly recommends e-prescribing technology to other healthcare organizations. Its cost-effectiveness and seamless integration with EHRs are major advantages, he said.
"It's important to look for flexible integration options to ensure the continuity of data – like allergies and prescriptions – between systems," he advised.
"Traditionally, systems were more out of the box, making them harder to configure," he concluded. "But now, e-prescribing systems are very adaptable to various workflows and are no longer a 'take it or leave it' proposition. They are absolutely a worthwhile investment."
Follow Bill's health IT coverage on LinkedIn: Bill Siwicki
Email him: bsiwicki@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.
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