Transcript Electronic Prescribing

ELECTRONIC PRESCRIBING
E-prescribing is the computer based generation of filling
medical prescriptions. The purpose of E-prescribing is to reduce the risks
associated with traditional prescription script writing. This is very
beneficial because it saves thousands of lives each year. The Institute of
Medicine identified medication errors as the most common type of
medical error in health care today. E- prescribing also reduces the
amount of time spent on phone calls to and from pharmacies. These
systems can perform checks against the patient’s current medications for
drug-drug interactions, drug-allergy interactions, diagnosis, body weight,
and correct dosing. Overall, this is a very beneficial and thoroughly
equipped system.
HOW DOES E- PRESCRIBING
WORK?
A prescriber uses a computer to electronically access a
patient’s prescription benefit which allows them to:
-Chose medications that are covered by the patient’s drug benefit
-Receive critically important information on their patients’ current
and past prescriptions
-Exchange prescription information with the pharmacy more
accurately and in a short amount of time.
-Electronically send prescriptions from their offices to more than
64,000 retail pharmacies and six of the largest mail order
pharmacies
LIMITATIONS TO E- PRESCRIBING
Limitations that may hinder e-prescription services:
-Financial Costs: The costs of providing this service may go beyond the
means of small clinical practices.
-Change Management: There are several changes to be made when
transitioning from paper scripts to electronic scripts. Steps must be taken to
ensure effective planning, training, support, and continuous quality
improvement for successful transition.
-Security & Privacy: A security issue is the verification of electronic
signatures, in ensuring the medical integrity of the prescriptions received by
pharmacists. Therefore adequate firewalls must be used by pharmacists to
ensure protection of client information.
STATISTICS
-In 2011, 58% of office based physicians are actively
using e-Prescribing compared to just 36% in 2010.
-In 2011, more than 570 million prescriptions were eprescribed, a 75% increase from 2010.
-As of today, over 56,900 pharmacies are now available
through e-prescriptions which represents 91% of
community pharmacies in the United States.
CITATIONS
http://www.cms.gov/Medicare/EHealth/Eprescribing/index.html?redirect=/
ePrescribing/
http://www.hrsa.gov/healthit/toolbox/HealthITAdoptiontoolbox/Electronic
Prescribing/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2769896/