Electronic Prescribing Cuts Errors

Doctors are renowned for their illegible hand writing. When pharmacists cannot easily decipher a hand-scrawled prescription, errors can result. A new study suggests that electronic prescribing can cut the number of errors dramatically. Researchers studied prescriptions written by providers in 12 community practices in New York State. In these practices, 15 providers wrote prescriptions by hand while another 15 wrote prescriptions electronically. E-prescribing reduced the number of errors by a factor of 7. At the end of the study year, the percent of prescribing errors committed by those using pen and paper had actually risen slightly. Perhaps handwritten prescriptions will soon become obsolete.
[Journal of General Internal Medicine, online Feb. 26, 2010]