Pharmaceutical Industry

Physicians Trumpet the Value of ePrescribing

Efforts to expand the use of ePrescribing technology received an important boost from new research released Feb. 28 showing ePrescribing receives high marks from constituents whose opinion about the technology may count the most - physicians.

A major obstacle to widespread adoption of ePrescribing has been the perception of physician resistance. But a new survey of 500 physician practices that have participated in a three-year pilot program demonstrates that a large majority of doctors and their staff who use the technology believe that it allows them to practice safer and better medicine.

According to the survey conducted by Haldy McIntosh & Associates for the Southeastern Michigan ePrescribing Initiative (SEMI), three out of four prescribers believe strongly that ePrescribing improves safety for their patients, and nearly 70 percent say it improves the quality of care. One of the important benefits of ePrescribing cited by physicians is the safety alerts that warn of potentially harmful drug-drug interactions and drug-allergy risks at the time of prescribing. Nearly 65 percent of physician ePrescribers reported at least one incident of changing a prescription in response to a safety alert received through the system – a strong statistic demonstrating that ePrescribing can help prevent against dangerous and costly adverse drug events.

Survey results show that more than 70 percent of respondents are very satisfied with ePrescribing technology. More than 80 percent of all prescriptions written by those polled are currently done electronically, and four out of 10 now only write ePrescriptions.

Source: The Southeast Michigan ePrescribing Initiative, February 2008