Technology: Is E-Prescribing Worthwhile?
Some say it can pay for itself and protect patients. Find out if it’s right for your practice.
By Ken Terry You’ve been handwriting prescriptions for years, and it’s worked pretty well for you. It takes only 10 or 20 seconds to dash off a script; nobody has sued you over anything you’ve prescribed; and you don’t have to mess with a computer while seeing patients.
Still, pharmacy calls are driving your staff crazy, and once in a while, a pharmacist notifies you about a potential drug interaction. So you wonder whether electronic prescribing might protect patients from harm, and whether it could make your office more efficient.
Studies show that e-prescribing does in fact improve patient safety. For example, in 2003, three Massachusetts health plans gave e-prescribing software licenses and PDAs to 3,400 physicians and nurses. In 2007, with the aid of computerized drug/drug and drug/allergy alerts, the collaborative’s providers wrote nearly 5 million electronic prescriptions — and changed 104,000 of them because they were potentially harmful.
The Henry Ford Medical Group in Detroit had a similar experience in early 2005, when the group started piloting a standalone e-prescribing program. By July of the next year, 600 of its 800 doctors had access to it. During that period, more than 98,000 prescriptions — including 7,300 that might have caused drug allergies — were changed or canceled as a result of automatic alerts. Three-quarters of Henry Ford’s doctors say e-prescribing improves the quality of care and makes patient care safer.
Some private practice doctors agree, too. “Patient safety is definitely increased by reducing errors in the transcribing process” at the pharmacy, says Bernd Wollschlaeger, a family physician in Miami who uses the iScribe program. Azar Korbey, a family doctor in Salem, N.H., stresses the importance of legibility and drug/allergy alerts. He says his Allscripts e-prescribing program has warned him against prescribing the wrong medication a number of times. Continued...
