Advantages and Disadvantages of the Electronic Prescription in Medical Field

Advantages and Disadvantages of the Electronic Prescription in Medical Field
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Advantages and Disadvantages of the Electronic Prescription in Medical Field
According to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, a prescription is defined as “a written message from a doctor that officially tells someone to use a medicine, therapy, etc.” Another definition is “a medicine or drug that a doctor officially tells someone to use.” Over the years, prescriptions were given through papers that were handwritten by physicians. However, as time went on and after several studies, it was revealed that some patients often succumb to their illnesses simply because doctors prescribed the wrong medicine or the pharmacists sold the wrong medicine as a result of false interpretations. Prescription errors are indeed costly, and without a healthy nation, the economy suffers greatly. In the UK for example, Fitzgerald (2009) estimated the cost of such errors to be more than £400 annually, and with such numbers, it is indeed hard for this issue to go unnoticed. There was, therefore, a need for a better and more accurate system of prescribing drugs and with the help of technology, electronic prescription systems were conceived. The advent of electronic prescription systems was meant to help reduce the ease with which doctors err when they are prescribing drugs to their patients. However, despite the numerous positive reviews, there have also been concerns over some of the aspects of these systems. By delving deeper into the advantages and shortcomings of the electronic prescription systems, this article will elucidate on the globe’s need to invest in finding a solution for the many deaths and the inflated costs of dealing with prescription errors.
Advantages of Electronic Prescription in the Medical Field
* Reduces Prescription errors.
According to Shawahna et al. (2011), electronic prescription helps to lessen the rate at which doctors err when giving prescriptions to their patients. As stated earlier, prescription errors cost the world economies a lot of money as well as the human resource because of the deaths as well as costs of seeking medical care. Friedman et al. (2007) warns that even though clinical decisions, as well as prescription writing, are left to the highly trained and competent doctors and pharmacists, errors are bound to occur occasionally. This means that at some point, the economy will incur a loss albeit negligible in the short-run. To err is human and even doctors sometimes do have slips of attention or insufficient knowledge regarding a patient’s health history. These factors can contribute to the occurrence of prescription errors within the hospital facility. However, according to Shawahna et al. (2010), the advent of electronic prescription will indeed help to reduce prescription errors significantly.
* Electronic prescription also offers doctors automated and real-time clinical decision support.
Doctors often struggle with the faith that people often bestow on them. Every patient who makes their way to a physician is always sure that the doctor will help and eventually heal them. However, few take their time to comprehend the amount of information as well as the weight of the decisions doctors have to make on a daily basis. In some occasions, pharmacists, doctors, and nurses are often forced to guess some prescriptions hoping that they have acted in line with the information the patient provided. According to Ginzburg et al. (2009), certain information such as body mass is crucial during prescription especially when the patient is an overweight or obese child. However, without such information, doctors are often left with little information to make good calls. Conversely, an electronic prescription will ensure that certain information regarding patients is recorded and stored in a hospital’s or health care sector’s server. With such frameworks in place, it is easier for doctors to get the right information regarding the health of a patient and administer the right drugs.
* Electronic prescription also makes it easier for medical practitioners to check for errors on a daily basis.
The software programs behind electronic prescription often have logs or are fitted with accountability checks which make it easier to monitor what and when a prescription was given. Barber (2010) advises that the effectiveness of electronic prescribing needs be measured using prospective studies. He also continues to state that these should be done on a daily basis and as it stands, electronic prescription systems make it easier for the administrators to conduct their checks and assess the given prescriptions. While it might seem tedious, it is indeed essential and will help to prevent recurring errors in the long-run.
* Electronic prescription also helps to improve medication adherence.
“Although manufacturers, distributors, prescribers, and dispensers are highly regulated under the law, patients enjoy almost co...