According to the institute of medicine, around 1.5 million medication errors occur that result in 7,000 deaths every year. 70% of these errors are preventable. Medication errors can occur at any stage of medication use that includes ordering, transcribing, dispensing, administering, and monitoring. E-prescribing uses technology to allow prescribers to electronically enter prescriptions. This eliminates the need for interpreting handwritten prescriptions and reduces prescribing errors and improves patient care. Medical errors are an important factor that influences the quality of patient care.
Recently with the efforts of Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services and stimulus package incentives for health information technology, many health care providers are expected to implement e-prescribing systems.
Benefits
· E-prescribing prevents medication errors occurring due to wrong interpretation of the handwritten prescription. Hence E-prescribing eliminates the need for handwriting interpretation that not decreases medication error rates but also reduces communication time between pharmacies and office staff.
· Payers can promote utilization of generic and preferred brand drugs, as well as avoid costs resulting from adverse drug events.
· Physicians can concurrently receive information regarding the formulary, drug-drug and drug allergy as well as a history of drugs dispensed for the patient.
· E-prescribing can promote safety of the patients by assuring the accuracy of prescribing that will translate to better patient outcomes and reductions in personnel time required for prescription clarification.
· Cost associated with prescribing and dispensing time can also be saved and this may increase the efficiency of the health care provider. CMS estimates that over a 5-year period, the economic benefit of e-prescribing achieved by prescribers, dispensers, and beneficiaries could exceed $800 million
Challenges
· As with any new technology few clinicians may resist embracing this technology due lack of data supporting improved patient outcomes, privacy concerns, legal concerns, and high system costs
· Health care providers may be resistant to implement due to preconceived notion that it may disrupt their workflow.
· Even with electronic prescribing, errors may creep in prescriber must pay close attention to the e-prescribing application features and level of clinical decision support to avoid clinical blind spots.
Conclusion
It is believed that through public and private incentives for using e prescribing technology, the adoption rate of this technology will increase. The complete benefits such as improved care coordination can only be realized through increased implementation of the technology. There is a need for studies that provide data to support improvements in quality of care and cost reductions associated with E-prescribing. The acceptance of this technology can be improved by continued support and ongoing initiatives from the government, medical organizations, and industry.
In this day and age various doctors are benefiting from the internet to conduct web consultations. Electronic prescribing is a great way to get prescriptions from the comfort of your home. E-prescribing is more accurate and safer than traditional hand written scripts. No more handwriting errors and when you e-prescribe you don’t have to worry about drug interactions or allergies because all your information is in the system.