With e-Rx poised for breakout, SureScripts mulls next move
ALEXANDRIA, Va. —The planned departure of Kevin Hutchinson as president and chief executive officer of SureScripts comes at a propitious time for electronic prescribing and the nationwide conversion to health information technology.
Hutchinson, who has led the pharmacy-sanctioned e-prescribing platform provider since August 2002, announced in December he would leave at the end of this month. SureScripts’ chief operating officer, Rick Ratliff, will serve as acting CEO.
SureScripts spokesman Rob Cronin said Hutchinson “is looking for his next opportunity.
“Kevin has always seen himself as a builder, so he’s looking for an opportunity similar to the one he found at SureScripts when he joined,” Cronin told Drug Store News. “He sees e-prescribing as hitting or about to hit its tipping point, so he feels now is a good opportunity to look for another chance to build.”
Hutchinson, he added, plans to stay within the health information technology field.
Since taking charge of SureScripts shortly after its launch by the National Association of Chain Drug Stores and the National Community Pharmacists Association, Hutchinson has led the effort to build a neutral nationwide network for e-prescribing and electronic transmission of patient health data. Under his watch, the Pharmacy Health Information Exchange has gone from concept to launch to its current position as the most successful and widespread network for electronic prescribing and pharmacy integration.
With the nation’s physicians beginning to take advantage of health information technology—and the costs they’ll bear for converting to e-prescribing systems dropping—conditions appear to be ripening for a massive, nationwide transition away from paper prescribing and into a new era of electronic storage and transmission of patient records. Hutchinson, as much as anyone in the field, has championed a more integrated network of prescribing physicians, pharmacists, testing labs and other members of the healthcare spectrum, linked through electronic communications systems and health information technology.
Those efforts clearly are gaining traction. In 2007, more than 35,000 prescribers electronically connected to more than 40,000 community pharmacies and generated more than 35 million electronic prescription transactions. In 2008, SureScripts predicts that e-prescription transaction volume will nearly triple.
“Leading the team at SureScripts has been the most rewarding work of my career,” Hutchinson said. “I want to thank the nation’s community pharmacies for their unwavering support of SureScripts and their unprecedented cross-industry collaboration.
“I am leaving on the heels of a breakthrough year for e-prescribing, and while the wind is clearly at our backs, there remains much work to be done,” Hutchinson added. “E-prescribing must remain a national priority.”
Hutchinson spoke highly of his interim successor. “Rick has co-led this effort with me from the beginning and leads a strong management team that stands ready to guide SureScripts through its continued growth,” he said.
Industry leaders praised Hutchinson for his leadership. “At the beginning, middle and end of each day, it’s all about the patient,” said CVS Caremark chairman and CEO Tom Ryan. “Kevin and the SureScripts team have played a pivotal role in…pharmacy’s efforts to electronically link and bring together physicians, payers and pharmacists to better serve patients with safer and more cost-efficient care.”
Added Bruce Roberts, executive vice president and CEO of the National Community Pharmacists Association and co-chairman of SureScripts, “Electronic prescribing would not be where it is today without Kevin’s leadership over the past five-plus years. SureScripts’ efforts to enable independent pharmacies for electronic prescribing have helped ensure the continued and valuable role played by our member pharmacies in communities across the United States.”
Between now and his planned departure, Hutchinson said he would continue to support efforts by Health and Human Services secretary Michael Leavitt and Congress to spur physicians and pharmacies to adopt e-prescribing technology into their practices through financial and other incentives.