We're upgrading our electronic prescribing vendor from DoseSpot to DrFirst, bringing you the latest and most streamlined electronic prescribing experience available. Get ready for enhanced features and a seamless workflow with Kipu's new partnership with DrFirst!
What Is DrFirst/Rcopia?
Rcopia is DrFirst's premiere e-prescribe software that allows users to electronically prescribe medications and will replace DoseSpot as the integrated eRx solution in the Kipu EMR.
Who Uses Rcopia?
Providers, Providing Agents, Clinical Support Staff, and some site administrators will use and benefit from the integration.
What is the prescribing workflow in Rcopia?
The DrFirst/Rcopia workflow is as follows:
Why Are We Switching to DrFirst/Rcopia?
By sending prescriptions through Rcopia, Kipu users can benefit from interactions with pharmacies, including RxChange and RxCancel requests. Additionally, users will have increased access to fill status and refill information, enhancing their prescribing experience.
DrFirst brings several exciting enhancements to our current eRx workflow, including the following:
- Drug-allergy and drug interaction: This feature will allow users to make better-informed decisions around prescription interaction safety.
- Medication search: Users will be able to search for prescriptions, allowing them to find items faster.
- Auto-enrollment: Patients are automatically enrolled once the first name, last name, complete address, birth date, and birth sex fields are filled out in their chart.
- Bi-directional allergy transmission: Allergies entered in Kipu are sent to Rcopia and vice versa, improving patient safety and efficiency.
- Prescriptions created and signed in Rcopia/Kipu: Prescriptions will be created and signed in Rcopia and sent to Kipu allowing providers to use the full range of Rcopia capabilities, or created in Kipu and sent to Rcopia.
- Patient medication list available in Rcopia: The patient's full medication list (including non-prescriptions) will be available in Rcopia, allowing for even more precise drug interaction alerts.
- PDMP data in-workflow: PDMP is now available in the Rcopia workflow.
- Provider notifications: Provider notifications now include both prescriptions pending signature and pharmacy messages, ensuring that providers don't miss information.
We're excited to offer these new features to streamline and enhance your prescribing process.
DoseSpot and DrFirst/Rcopia Comparative
In the following chart, the steps listed under Current State reflect DoseSpot best practices and may not exactly match how your facility performs each step.
| Workflows | DoseSpot | DrFirst/Rcopia |
| Setting Up Non-Providers | Performed by Kipu staff. | Each facility can set up and manage its own non-provider users. |
| Patient Registration | Manually added. | Auto-enrolled once certain patient information fields are filled out. |
| Allergy Transmission | Allergies added in the EMR would appear in DoseSpot, but not the other way around | Allergies added in the EMR will appear in Rcopia and vice versa. |
| Pharmacy Selection | Entered in Kipu Settings. Automatically adds default to all patient charts. | Must be assigned to each individual patient in Rcopia. |
| Drug Interaction Alerts | Limited to certain medication interactions. | Full medication list. Rcopia uses its own medication database. |
| Prescription Transmission | Enter all prescriptions in Kipu and push to DoseSpot. | Enter the prescription directly into Rcopia, the prescription will appear in Kipu or enter the prescription in Kipu and push it to Rcopia. |
| PDMP Access in-workflow | Not available. | Available (except in Guam, New York, Utah, and Wisconsin). |
| Provider Notifications | Pending Prescriptions only. | Pending prescriptions and pharmacy messages. |
| Medication Protocols | Created in the EMR as templates and sent to DoseSpot as eRx orders. | Created in the EMR as templates and sent to Rcopia as eRx orders. |
| Meds Brought In | Could be converted into prescriptions, if needed. | Can be converted into prescriptions, if needed. |
| Creating Multi-Strength Prescriptions | Multi-strength prescriptions can be created, producing separate prescriptions for the different strengths. | Not available at this time, but options are being explored. The current workaround is to create individual prescriptions for each different dose strength in Rcopia or Kipu or adjust the dose quantity to make different strengths. If adjustments are necessary, make those adjustments in Kipu. |
| ePrescribe Frequencies | Can use custom frequencies created in the EMR at any interval. | Rcopia has set intervals that can be modified to fit your needs, however, you can only set one rule per frequency. Custom frequencies cannot be created, though you can create a prescription in Rcopia, then modify the frequency in Kipu. However, you can also create eRx prescription orders in the EMR and use Kipu's frequencies |
| Managing Prescriptions after Discharge | Can view the patient in Dosespot and prescribe medications after discharge. | Can access patient/ prescribe medications/send refills in Rcopia for 30 days after discharge. |
| Order appears in the MAR | eRx medication orders created in the Kipu EMR appeared in the MAR as soon as they were submitted. | A medication order will only appear in the MAR once it has been sent to the Pharmacy (by a Provider Agent on behalf of a provider) or signed and sent by a provider. |
| Episodes of Care in Prescription Portal | Different episodes of care show medications distinctly in the portal by location. | All medications for all episodes of care for the patient, regardless of location. |
Note: You will still be able to create quick/custom orders in Kipu for orders not being sent to a pharmacy (e.g. orders that are being filled from facility or patient inventory). If you create an order that then needs to become a prescription, you will have to enter it again in Rcopia. The system will prompt the user to reconcile the active order and prescription and update Kipu to avoid duplication.