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By Rajnish Mago, MD (bio)
If any of you is still writing out prescriptions by hand, please let me convince you to change to e-prescribing. On this page, I will list the advantages of e-prescribing. I will explain why I absolutely love e-prescribing—and you will too, once you get over the inertia!
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS.gov) webpage on e-prescribing starts with the sentence:
“E-Prescribing is a prescriber’s ability to electronically send an accurate, error-free and understandable prescription directly to a pharmacy from the point-of-care – is an important element in improving the quality of patient care.”
Surely you are not going to tell me you doubt what your government is saying?? 🙂
It saves *us* time
Especially if the medication is simply being renewed, all that is needed are the following steps–click “Reorder,” check the box for the medication(s) that you are renewing the prescriptions for, enter your four-digit pin code (which may even be saved on your computer), and click “Approve and send.” That’s it!
It saves the patient time
The medication will be ready when the patient gets to the pharmacy. With a traditional paper prescription, the patient has to submit the prescription at the pharmacy and then either wait or come back later. Sure, it’s not the end of the world. But, it’s so much more convenient to just go to the pharmacy and find that your prescription is already ready to be picked up.
It reduces errors
We all know that there have been innumerable cases of errors because of the pharmacist misreading the prescribing clinician’s handwriting. Some of us don’t have the best handwriting, especially when scribbling prescriptions quickly under the pressure of time while seeing a
It reduces fraud
Have you ever worried that someone—the patient or someone else–may alter the prescription, especially for a controlled substance?
It points out important drug interactions
Related Pages
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EMR recommendation: Luminello
References
Berwick DM, Winickoff DE. The truth about doctors’ handwriting: a prospective study. BMJ. 1996 Dec 21-28;313(7072):1657-8. PubMed PMID: 8991021; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC2359141.
Schneider KA, Murray CW, Shadduck RD, Meyers DG. Legibility of doctors’ handwriting is as good (or bad) as everyone else’s. Qual Saf Health Care. 2006 Dec;15(6):445. PubMed PMID: 17142598; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC2464897.
Rodríguez-Vera FJ, Marín Y, Sánchez A, Borrachero C, Pujol E. Illegible handwriting in medical records. J R Soc Med. 2002 Nov;95(11):545-6. PubMed PMID: 12411618; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC1279250.
Lyons R, Payne C, McCabe M, Fielder C. Legibility of doctors’ handwriting: quantitative comparative study. BMJ. 1998 Sep 26;317(7162):863-4. PubMed PMID: 9748186; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC31098.
Copyright 2019, Rajnish Mago, MD. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without express written permission.
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