The transmission of prescriptions electronically to a pharmacy computer system from a prescriber’s computer is called electronic prescribing. This, in contrast with the traditional paper prescription that the patient would have to fax or carry to the pharmacy, this will lessen the error or mistakes that may be due to bad handwriting or penmanship and will also save time and money. This also enhanced the patient’s safety since a lot of fatality had been recorded due to medical errors. Wrong dosage, missed drug-allergy reactions, and poor handwriting as discussed earlier are the main reasons for these errors.
Some pharmacists interpret the prescription wrongly which might lead to medical healthcare errors. These errors may result to death, and its range will depend on its severity. This might be because of to weakness in the prescriber’s knowledge of the drug dosage, or wrong interpretation of the prescription by the pharmacists. Healthcare outcomes and these problems can be improved by electronic prescribing. This could also improve the quality, effectiveness, and could promise in reduction of cost.
E-prescribing has been chosen in contrast to the traditional prescribing process by a lot of people (patients and pharmacists) because of a lot of reasons. Phone calls and call-backs being done to the pharmacies are being reduced, so as with the faxes. It will raise the overall quality of care since there will be access to the patient’s medical history at the time of prescribing. Patient’s convenience is improved as well since it will reduce the trips to the pharmacy and the wait time. With the aid of a wireless network, certain features are being offered such as reporting features and its full mobility.
How in that case does online electronic prescribing function? The computer software designed for this purpose will be accessed by the prescriber. It will ensure the prescriber’s authentication. Next is that the prescriber will verify the patient information. The drug or medicine will be chosen, with consideration of the dosage, strength, its quantity, the patient’s allergies, and the instructions will be the next step for the prescriber. The pharmaceutical that will process the request will be decided next and will place the order. The order then shows up in the pharmacist’s computer system which will be filled up and prepared to be picked up by the patient.
Electronic prescribing is standing up to its aim that is to reduce the number of medication errors. Computers can maintain accurate and up-to-date drug database. The prescriber will receive prompts to ensure that the prescription is correct and to make last minute reviews. Other features such as allergy alerts and overdose alerts are available to avoid potential ADEs
E-prescribing will make it efficient for both the prescriber and the patient and can streamline the making of prescription. A lot of death and a very high medication cost that is caused by medical errors will be avoided with all the resources that are available in the Internet. The proper prescription of the people based on their medical records will surely be received.
A lot of interesting stuff is available to anybody at electronic prescribing and also electronic health record software.
