E-Prescribing Adoption: A Prescription for Progress

Think about the last time you were prescribed a medication. Did your doctor fill out a prescription on a paper pad and instruct you to get the medication filled at your local pharmacy? If not, chances are that he or she electronically routed the prescription to your pharmacy. This process—called electronic prescribing or “e-prescribing”—is helping prescribers and pharmacists make better clinical decisions, improve workflow, reduce costs, and ultimately enhance patient care.

E-prescribing adoption has positive outcomes for the quality, safety, and efficiency of health care:

• A 2010 study done by the Weill Cornell Medical College, and supported by the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality, found that physicians make seven times fewer errors when using electronic systems to prescribe than when they are writing prescriptions by hand.
• A 2012 study by Surescripts found that e-prescribing significantly increases the likelihood of first-fill medication adherence (i.e., new prescriptions picked up by the patient) and could lead to $140 to $240 billion in health care savings and improved outcomes over the next 10 years.