E-Prescribing not 100% accurate
February 18, 2008
The Ohio pharmacy board is investigating errors in medical prescriptions filed electronically by doctors.
Incorrect drug names, doses and directions are appearing in Ohio pharmacists’ computer systems, either because of human error, software glitches or both.
The Ohio State Board of Pharmacy began urging doctors in 2000 to switch from handwriting prescriptions to e-prescribing so pharmacists wouldn’t have to decipher sloppy penmanship. Ohio authorizes the use of 37 electronic prescription software programs.
But the fear of error and the lack of uniform standards for software programs have made physicians slow to embrace electronic prescriptions, said Tim Maglione, spokesman for the Ohio State Medical Association.
Industry officials estimate that 74 million electronic prescriptions are filed in the United States each year. Ohio ranks ninth nationwide, according to SureScripts, a Virginia-based network provider of electronic prescribing services.
SureScripts Chief Marketing Officer Tammy Lewis said mistakes will decrease as more doctors use electronic filing. A bill in the U.S. Senate would require doctors who accept Medicare payments to write electronic prescriptions by 2011.
But some members of the Ohio pharmacy board remain unconvinced.
They say that E-Prescribing is safer, but in a profession that should be 100% accurate, this is evidence to the contrary. If the prescribing doctor scribbles out a handwritten script in under 30 seconds, would he take any extra time to type in into a computerized system?
(article segments via coshocton tribune)
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