Pros And Cons Of Electronic Prescribing Essay

Electronic prescribing allows the medical practitioner to send a patient's prescription electronically to the pharmacy. This allows providers instant access to a patient's eligibility and medication history. An electronic device allows the medical practitioner to quickly review a patient's other prescriptions and conditions, flagging the physician if the dosage is incorrect or if there are any contraindications to prescribing that specific drug. For instance, suppose Physician A prescribes Ibuprofen 800mg to a patient on Thursday due to a migraine. The same patient presents to Physician B at the same practice the next day with wrist pain seeking more painkillers. The device should tell Physician B that the patient already has a sufficient dosage of painkillers.

Compared to paper or fax prescriptions, e-prescribing improves medication safety, better management of medications costs, improved prescribing accuracy and efficiency, increase practice efficiency while improving health care quality and reducing health care costs through the reduction of adverse drug events and increased prescribing of generic medications. The implementation of an e-prescribing system can potentially reduce the time spent on pharmacy callbacks, faxing prescriptions to pharmacies, and automating the prescription renewal request and authorization process. This can reduce the cost of prescribing for both physicians and pharmacies, by saving time and resources, and increasing patient convenience. Some patients may not fill new prescriptions and/or substitute an over-the-counter medication in place of a