Attachment C -- Invitation Letter - Physician Practice

Attachment C: Invitation Letter – Physician Practice

February 3, 2021

Dear Dr. ___________:

We would like to invite you to participate in a one-time telephone interview as part of a study exploring the effective use of electronic prescribing (“e-prescribing”) in physician practices and pharmacies. This study, funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, is being conducted by the Center for Studying Health System Change, a non-partisan health policy research organization in Washington, DC.

For this study, to better understand how e-prescribing is affecting communications between physician practices and pharmacies, we would like to interview practices with e-prescribing that send prescriptions directly from their e-prescribing system to pharmacies electronically, instead of by fax. This is often referred to as electronic data interchange.

To participate:

• Your practice should be using e-prescribing software currently, and,

• Your practice should regularly send prescriptions directly from your e-prescribing system to pharmacies electronically, instead of by fax. (We recognize that prescriptions sent electronically by your practice may sometimes be received at the pharmacy by fax. This does not affect the practice’s eligibility for participation in the study.)

If your practice is able to participate, we would appreciate the opportunity to conduct one 45-minute telephone interview with you or another physician in your practice familiar with e-prescribing, as well as a 30-minute interview with an administrative staff person who provides operational support for the e-prescribing system, including the transmission of e-prescriptions to the pharmacy. In addition to exploring how e-prescribing is affecting communication between physician practices and pharmacies, the discussion will explore physician use of patient data at the point of prescribing, including medication histories and formulary information.

If your practice cannot participate, we would appreciate your referral to a practicing physician in the community who sends prescriptions electronically to pharmacies.

The study will be published and we will provide participants with a copy. The results will be disseminated widely to help policy makers and the health care community advance the use of health information technology. Please note that we will not disclose the names of participating organizations or individual respondents in any publications.

If you would like to schedule an interview, or if you have any questions or concerns, please contact <<Scheduler>>, by phone, <<Phone>>, or by e-mail, <<Email>>.

Sincerely,

Joy M. Grossman, Ph.D.

Project Director and Senior Health Researcher

Phone: (202) 484-3298

Fax: (202) 484-9258

Email: JGrossman@hschange.org

www.hschange.org