Doctors, patients find ease in e-prescribing

From the Fort Wayne (Ind.) Journal Gazette:
Looking over a prescription refill request, Dr. Jeff Gladd scans his options.

He can approve it or reject it. He can send a note with his decision to the pharmacist.

He can check it against the patient’s medical record to make sure the drug is appropriate, based on past ailments and current medications. And now – like a small but growing number of doctors around the country – Gladd is managing that part of his business work online.

Last year, 35 million prescriptions were routed electronically between health care providers and pharmacies in the U.S. That number was more than the three previous years combined, according to SureScripts, which operates the Pharmacy Health Information Exchange. The exchange facilitates electronic transmission of prescription information between physicians such as Gladd, who practices at Parkview Medical Group-Branch Court in Columbia City, and pharmacists.

“E-prescribing” is, defined by SureScripts, when a physician uses a computer or hand-held computing device to electronically generate and send a prescription to a pharmacist’s computer. ...more

E-Prescribing Becomes Legal In All 50 States

Every state in the U.S.A. now allows e-prescribing. As far as I know, not even one Canadian province has legalized the practice yet.

From Information Week:
Alaska, the 50th state to join the union, this week also became the last state to legalize e-prescribing.

The milestone means that pharmacists and doctors in all 50 states, plus Washington, D.C., can legally exchange drug prescription information electronically.

E-prescribing is designed to reduce drug errors by eliminating illegible handwriting, automatically checking for medication interactions, red-flagging drug allergies, as well as streamline prescription renewals and refill processes.

The Institute of Medicine estimates that health IT, such as e-prescriptions, can prevent about 1.5 million medication errors in the U.S. annually. ...more