E-Prescribing from the Patients Perspective

E-Prescribing from the Patients Perspective

Unless you are a physician, nurse, or employee working in the medical field, you may not have heard of a new technology called electronic prescribing. Since its use is becoming more and more popular throughout the medical world, it is important for patients to be informed on what e-prescribing is and what benefits are involved.

Think about the normal prescription process that we all have gone through. First you go see a doctor or medical facility to get diagnosed and receive treatment recommendations. If a prescription medication is one of the treatment recommendations, the doctor or nurse fills out a script notating the medicine name and the dosage instructions. The script is then given to you, the patient, to take to your pharmacy of choice. You can drop off the script at the pharmacy and make a second trip back to pick up the prescription once it is filled or you can bring it to the pharmacy and wait the 10 or 15 minutes for it to be filled. Either way, the process is time consuming.

E-prescribing, on the other hand, reduces time spent in the prescription process. The way it works also begins at the doctor office or medical facility. You would make your normal trip to the doctor to get diagnosed and treated if you are sick or experiencing pain. The difference is that the doctor or nurse does not have to handwrite a script for you to take to your pharmacy. The care provider would use a specially designed computer system to enter your prescription information and electronically transmit it to your pharmacy of choice. This allows you to make one trip, without waiting, to your pharmacy to pick up your filled prescription. With over 3.5 billion prescriptions written each year, imagine how much time this can save.

Besides saving time, e-prescribing provides another major benefit to patients. With such a large number of prescriptions being written each year, errors are inevitable to occur. Miscommunication, illegible handwriting, unclear instructions, or not knowing what other drugs a patient is taking can all lead to a patient being seriously hurt or killed by a prescription medication error.

E-prescribing systems reduce the chance of error. They create easy to read, clear cut instructions for pharmacies to receive. They also are able to maintain patient information and prescription history so that doctors can be alerted to potential drug interactions or allergies. Patient information and history is monitored and secured by state and federal government laws so that security is at utmost importance.

The final point to make about e-prescribing is that it comes at no cost to the patient. Medical providers and pharmacies pay to have the software installed and to receive proper training. The only change in cost that the patient would see is a possible reduction since the software makes it easy for doctors to ensure they are prescribing medications covered under a patient's insurance plan.

Overall, e-prescribing can lead to a reduction in time, error, and cost for patients. It is a technologically advanced way for doctors and medical providers to easily maintain and transmit prescriptions to pharmacies. It is quickly growing in popularity so eventually we will all be able to experience the benefits when it comes time to visit the doctor and fill a prescription.

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