DrFirst Adds Adobe Sign to Backline® Secure Care Collaboration Platform

DrFirst is first to offer mobile-enabled, real-time document e-signature for patients and providers, protecting patient safety and reducing care delays

ROCKVILLE, MD — September 10, 2019 — DrFirst, the nation’s leading provider of e-prescribing, patient medication management, and price transparency solutions, announced today that its Backline secure care collaboration platform is now the first such mobile solution for the healthcare market to offer an e-signature capability.

The integration of Adobe Sign, the most trusted e-signature solution, allows providers using Backline to notify patients, caregivers, or other clinicians on their mobile device via short messaging service (SMS) about documents that require signatures. Once received, the patient or provider can tap a link in the text message that will take them to a secure site where they can access, review, fill in missing information, and sign documents. The entire process is fully HIPPA compliant.

“The relationship between provider, patient, and caregiver involves multiple signatures over time, for everything from caregiver consent for patient treatment to release of information to insurance companies for prior authorization,” said Bill Bedsworth, Senior Director, Document Cloud for Enterprise, Adobe. “With Adobe Sign integrated into the Backline care collaboration platform, health care teams can focus on meaningful experiences with patients rather than administrative tasks. And patients will benefit from that ability to quickly and securely sign their important medical documents from anywhere, saving them time and hassle.”

Signing documents on a mobile device is more convenient for patients and providers and can eliminate delays in care associated with collecting physical, paper-based signatures or electronic signatures through email. Backline real-time care-team messaging and Adobe’s traceable document trail consolidated into a single secure messaging format promotes better continuity and coordination of care, safer patient communication, and improved patient outcomes.

“In healthcare, every minute counts, especially when obtaining consent for a lifesaving intervention or releasing medical information to guide a clinical decision,” said G. Cameron Deemer, president of DrFirst. “That is why we are pleased to forge an agreement with a fellow market leader like Adobe to add this crucial e-signature capability to Backline. This enhancement is yet another way DrFirst continues to innovate and improve our solutions to support providers in achieving safer, higher quality care at lower costs.”

Patients Prefer Text Messages

Bringing e-signatures into Backline supports the way patients want to receive information from physicians. Only 10 percent of patients prefer to receive physician communications through patient portals, whereas twice that many (19.6 percent) favor receiving information via secure text messages, according to results from a survey conducted by DrFirst. Additionally, more than 90 percent of respondents would like the ability to communicate through secure text messaging with a family member’s care team if that loved one were ill. Likewise, marketing automation firm Emarsys reported that the response rate to text messages is 209 percent higher than phone calls, voicemail, email, or even Facebook messages while also having a 98-percent open rate.

Backline secure care collaboration offers e-signature capability through its secure messaging solution. Built specifically for healthcare, Backline meets all HIPAA, HiTech Act, and Joint Commission requirements. The platform also offers the ease of text messaging with colleagues and patients without the risk of sending protected health information (PHI) over common, non-secure channels, which can result in costly HIPAA violations. With Adobe Sign’s integration, a provider can easily stay within Backline to notify a patient and create a link to access required documents.

Once the documents are signed, Backline cross-checks against identified provider roles and preferences and sends a secure notification to all relevant care team members. Automatically notifying providers of signed documents and other materials in real-time is one of the many ways Backline delivers the right information to the right provider at the right time.

About DrFirst

DrFirst, the nation’s leading provider of e-prescribing, price transparency, and medication management solutions, enables stakeholders across the healthcare industry to use comprehensive real-time data and connectivity to increase their patient safety ratings, efficiency, and profitability. Today, more than 262,000 healthcare professionals (including 104,000 prescribers), 67,000 pharmacies, 1,300 acute care facilities, 23,000 ambulatory care facilities, and more than 320 electronic health record (EHR) and pharmacy system vendors depend on DrFirst’s innovative software solutions to improve clinical workflows, expedite secure collaboration across a patient’s care team, and drive better health outcomes. The company’s integrated technologies include its award-winning electronic prescribing platform, the most comprehensive medication history available, clinically specialized secure messaging, and patient medication adherence monitoring and benefits checking. Also, DrFirst was the first to offer e-prescribing for controlled substances (EPCS) and is considered the industry standard for providers nationwide. For more information, please visit www.drfirst.com or connect with us @DrFirst.

DrFirst Media Contact:
Jenn Cohen
Amendola Communications
404-759-3933
[email protected]