I am huge fan of electronic prescribing. There is no doubt that it has many advantages including the following;
1. Increased safety by having accurate medication histories available as patients move between care settings including hospitals, ambulatory offices, nursing homes and home care etc.
2. Decision support that can alert physicians on dangerous drug interactions
3. Cost and formulary information allowing physicians to prescribe less costly treatments, which has been shown to improve patient compliance
4. Cost savings by eliminating the huge number of phone calls that occur between pharmacies and physicians trying to solve questions on paper scripts
5. Increased safety by accurate information on electronic scripts (no handwriting problems) as well as decision support that can prevent prescribing the wrong medication.
But why do pharmacies continue to call or fax physician offices? Do they not trust electronic prescriptions? This is a big pain point for many of our docs. If there are any pharmacists reading this or If there is anyone from Surescripts out there I would love to hear from you.
