Surescripts to Support Public Health Reporting

Electronic prescribing vendor Surescripts will work with the American Hospital Association and the College of American Pathologists to enable hospital laboratories to electronically transmit data on reportable laboratory results to public health agencies via the Surescripts national network.

The initiative is funded through a $4.9 million grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the organizations announced at HIMSS11 in Orlando. Surescripts, AHA and CAP during the next two years will recruit and train at least 500 hospitals to participate, with a minimum of 100 being critical access or rural hospitals. The initiative will provide hospitals with technical assistance.

Surescripts has in recent months been adding capabilities to the e-prescribing network to exchange other types of clinical data. The company recently partnered with the American Academy of Family Physicians to build a Web portal to enable secure messaging among physicians over the network via an AAFP portal or EHR systems.

--Joseph Goedert