Prescription management system

1. A prescription creation software system implemented on a computer comprising a program embodied on a computer-readable medium, the system being for use by a prescriber to create an electronic prescription prescribing a drug treatment for a patient condition exhibited by a patient at a point of care, the patient having a drugs benefit provider, the drugs benefit provider issuing a prescription benefit plan including a drug formulary for the patient listing at least one drug preferred by the drugs benefit provider for treatment of the condition, the electronic prescription comprising a patient identifier, at least one prescribed drug and at least one drug quantifier for the prescribed drug and being usable by a pharmacist to dispense the prescribed drug or drugs, the prescription creation system providing:

(a) a prescription creation screen display, permitting prescriber-operable data capture including:

i. patient-identifying data;

ii. prescribed drug identification data;

iii. drug quantification data;

iv. information regarding prescribability of a drug pursuant to formulary guidelines, the information being formulary-qualified according to the patient condition; and

(b) a library of prescribable drug data accessible from the prescription creation screen to display multiple prescribable drugs; and

(c) drug formulary information identifying at least one of multiple drugs as a patient's drug formulary preferences for selection by the prescriber of a benefit plan recommended drug; by which the patient's drug formulary preference is presented to the prescriber prior to completion of the prescription.

2. The prescription creation system according to claim 1 wherein the drugs in the drug list are classified into groups according to patient conditions for which the drugs have efficacy and the prescription creation system further comprises a patient-condition specification procedure for selecting the condition from groups of possible conditions and an onscreen drug selection procedure for selecting the prescribed drug from the library.

3. The prescription creation system according to claim 2 wherein the patient drug formulary data comprises a condition-driven formulary drug list, and a condition-driven nonformulary drug list, the drug lists being changeable according to the patient selected to identify drugs in the selected patient's drug formulary.

4. The system according to claim 1 wherein the prescription creation software system further comprises capturing patient condition data regarding the patient condition exhibited by the patient wherein the electronic prescription further comprises the patient condition data; and classifies the patient's drug formulary preference to indicate at least one drug preferred for treatment of the patient's exhibited condition.

5. A prescription creation software system implemented on a computer comprising a program embodied on a computer-readable medium, the system being for use by a prescriber to create an electronic prescription prescribing a drug to treat a condition exhibited by a patient at a point-of-care, the electronic prescription comprising a patient identifier, at least one prescribed drug and at least one drug quantifier for the prescribed drug and being usable by a pharmacist to dispense the prescribed drug or drugs, the prescription creation system providing:

a) a prescription creation screen display, permitting prescriber-operable data capture of information including:

i) patient-identifying data;

ii) prescribed drug identification data;

iii) drug quantification data;

iv) a patient condition data capture device for capturing patient condition data regarding the patient condition exhibited by the patient wherein the electronic prescription further comprises the patient condition data; and

b) a library of prescribable drug data accessible from the prescription creation screen to display multiple prescribable drugs wherein said prescribable drugs are associated with a patient condition; and

c) a prescription output screen device to output a completed prescription;

d) drug formulary information identifying at least one of multiple drugs as a patient's drug formulary preferences for selection by the prescriber of a benefit plan recommended drug; by which the patient's drug formulary preference is presented to the prescriber prior to completion of the prescription;

wherein the completed prescription includes the patient condition and identification and quantification data regarding a drug prescribed by the prescriber user for treatment of the patient condition, the patient condition and drug data being captured into the prescription.