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Electronic prescribing, or e-prescribing, is simply the process by which a patient's prescription information is electronically transmitted from the doctor's (or authorized care provider's) computer to a pharmacy computer. It effectively replaces a paper prescription that the patient would otherwise be required to deliver to a pharmacy.? It is estimated that in the United States there are approximately 7,000 deaths each year due to medication errors. These errors are predominately due to hand-writing illegibility, incorrect dosing, missed drug-to-drug or drug-allergy reactions. With approximately 3 billion prescriptions written annually, this constitutes one of the largest paper-based processes in the United States. The writing of prescriptions can be streamlined and made more efficient by using an e-prescribing system. ?This process, however simple it may sound, is packed with valuable features designed to provided the ultimate in patient safety. Using standards set for the industry by the National Council for Prescription Drug Program (NCPDP), the person originating the prescription must have access to specific computer software developed for this purpose. The e-prescribing software incorporates warning and alert systems which provide valuable information regarding a patient's current medications for assessing drug-to-drug interactions, drug-allergy interactions and diagnoses. Having access to a patient's full medical history, the program factors in the patient's vital statistics such as body weight, age, previously prescribed drugs, etc. and then determines the appropriateness, correct dosing, contraindications, potentially adverse reactions, duplicate therapies and the like. Alerts are immediately generated should any conflicts be detected. ? The overall feedback from professionals who are already using the e-prescribing program is extremely positive. The program provides an effective and immediate "second opinion" as well as a way to corroborate a suggested treatment plan. Using e-prescribing, certain benefits tend to stand out, such as: ? Elimination of mistakes by the pharmacist incorrectly interpreting illegible handwriting or ambiguous nomenclature ? Estimates reveal nearly 30 % of prescriptions require pharmacies to callback the prescriber for clarification. This translates into less time available to the pharmacist for other important functions. ? Instant access to a patient's full medical history ? Medication errors are often the result of inadequate access to up-to-date drug reference information. E-prescribing software includes current drug reference programs. ? Improved reporting capabilities. Query reporting can be performed (which would be impossible with paper prescriptions). Common examples of such reporting would be: finding all patients who have had a particular medication prescribed to them during a drug recall, or the frequency of medication prescribed by certain providers etc.? With all new technologies, there are drawbacks. The most obvious include (a) data entry errors, (b) inadvertently divulging protected health information over the internet and (c) the inability to use e- prescribing during a power failure, or when the prescriber's computer fails, or when providing treatment outside of a standard health care setting. The question now becomes, do the pros outweigh the cons? What do you think? Author’s Biography: John Horton is President and Founder of LegitScript, and a former aide in the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). After five years working for the “Drug Czar,” John Horton founded LegitScript with the intent of helping people be sure that they are buying safe and genuine prescription medication on the Internet. LegitScript, is an internet enforcement service group, that has been successfully investigating sites to determine whether or not such sites are in compliance with the law and accepted standards of medical and pharmacy practice ethics.
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