E-Prescribing 101: What It Is and Why It Matters

Many pharmacies have experienced confusion over what doctors prescribe. One solution that totally upside down the traditional prescription process is the E-Prescription.

So, why exactly is the E-prescription? And if it offers various benefits, why healthcare providers aren’t using it? In this blog post, we’ll explore: 

• What is and Why it is important for healthcare practices
• How it benefits the patients and providers
• Challenges in adapting the E-prescription

If you are interested in learning everything about the e-prescription, read on to learn all you need to know about the e-prescription.

What is E-Prescribing? Why it Matters

E-prescribing or Electronic Prescribing is a process of sending the patient’s medication prescription electronically to the pharmacies. Commonly, pharmacists struggle to read the provider’s prescription, which leads to the wrong medication. 

This may leave the patient’s life in danger. The E-Prescription system enables healthcare providers to prescribe patients’ medication digitally after diagnosis, and then effortlessly send it to the pharmacies. With the help of e-prescription: 

• Healthcare providers can eliminate handwriting errors
• Reduce phone calls between pharmacists and providers to classify prescriptions
• Ultimately improves patient safety

Moreover, patients can even get prescriptions filled without a trip to the pharmacy if the providers send them to a mail-order service. 

Electronic prescription also allows the providers access to prescription records and pharmacy databases to check any potential drug interactions and allergies. Overall, E-prescribing streamlines the workflow enhances workflow efficiency, and improves the quality of patient healthcare through quality checks and increased accuracy.

Related: Training Healthcare Providers on Efficient E-Prescribing Workflows

How It Benefits the Providers and Patients

For Providers

• Prescription Management System will alert the providers to any possible drug interaction and patient’s allergies to medication before prescribing the wrong medication.
• E-prescribing provides real-time access to patient’s medication history and ensures more informed decision-making.
• Providers can make a complete transition from prone to errors paperwork to maintaining and well-organized digital workflow.
• E-prescription management system reduces the callbacks from pharmacists due to confused handwritten prescriptions, ultimately leading to medication safety.

For Patients

• Patients can receive e-prescriptions digitally via the patient portal and send them to the preferred pharmacy conveniently.
• E-prescription saves extra traveling costs and time to the provider’s office to pick up the hand-prescribed by the provider.
• Electronic Prescription allows providers to see what medications the patient is already taking. This accessibility minimized the duplication and made it easier for patients to follow prescription regimes.
• Patients can request renewals electronically through patient portals connected to the e-rx system. This eliminates the paperwork delays.
• Patients can have access to complete prescription histories through patient portals, which helps them maintain complete prescription records even if they change their medication.

For Pharmacy

• With E-prescriptions, pharmacies can receive patient prescriptions from providers electronically instead of needing to interpret handwritten scripts. This will reduce the errors and speed up the prescription filling process.
• Pharmacies can integrate the e-prescription into the prescription management system, automating parts of the prescription filling workflow like data entry.
• E-prescription creates an electronic that is legible and can be easily referenced, providing better documentation for pharmacies.
• By streamlining the workflows and reducing errors, e-prescribing saves time and money for pharmacies. It also eliminates the cost associated with the paper-handling prescriptions.
• Electronic prescriptions give pharmacies visibility into upcoming prescription volume and demand and support better inventory management and purchasing.

Related: E-Prescribing: Top 5 Benefits For Small Practices

Challenge in Adapting the Electronic Prescribing

Electronic Prescription offers a vast range of benefits that can transform the prescription process and improve efficiency. However, there are still a few challenges when adapting the e-prescription with widespread adoption and optimal use.

Challenges

E-Prescription Abuse and Fraud

Yes, there are high chance that e-prescription abuse and fraud might occur with the adoption. Since there are no paper records that the patient is required to bring to the pharmacy, it may be easier to forge an e-prescription. However, some case reveals that pharmacy managers benefit from using prescription data in an unauthorized way.

Resistance in Workflow

Switching from traditional paper records to electronic prescriptions requires a major transition to prescribing workflow. Some have resisted the workflow changes, finding the e-prescribing systems are time-consuming. Typing e-prescriptions digitally can also be inconvenient for providers.

Cost of Adoption and Implementation

For small practices, the adoption and implementation of a certified e-prescription system can be expensive. The upfront cost involves software, hardware, training, and workflow changes needed. Upgrading the pharmacy management system to support e-prescribing also requires high investment for pharmacies.

Solutions

Advanced security protocols

Practices should implement advanced security protocols in e-prescription software to prevent falsification or unauthorized changes to e-prescriptions. Usage auditing can identify cases of fraud or abuse. Strict penalties for abuse can also help deter problems.

Optimizing workflow and easy-to-use

Well-designed e-prescription systems optimize workflows by integrating directly with EHRs. Features like order sets, shortcuts, and drop-down menus can take electronically entering prescriptions faster. 

Reducing costs through incentives

Federal incentive programs like Medicare’s eRx incentive program have provided financial incentives to physicians who adopt e-prescribing. This has helped offset some costs and drive adoption. Moreover, affordable e-prescribing options are also available in the marketplace, including free web-based solutions.

Vozo’s E-Prescribing Solution

Overall, the e-prescription benefits have still been shown to outweigh the risks. It has already gained popularity among pharmacies and healthcare practices, making it one of the essential parts of healthcare. 

At Vozo, we understand the importance and necessity of an e-prescription system for healthcare providers of all levels. Our comprehensive e-prescription service offers a vast range of e-prescription services and benefits that allow healthcare providers to;

• Create e-prescriptions easily and ensure maximum accuracy.
• Enhance the patient safety and quality of healthcare service.
• Reducing the chances of prescription and medication errors.
• Can Automate the e-prescription refilled effectively.
• Send the e-prescription to pharmacies instantly.
• Providers can access the e-prescription of the patients easily.
• Manage and organize the process, reducing the paperwork.
• Cost-effective solution that benefits healthcare practice at all levels.
• Providers can effortlessly finalize the prescriptions directly from the patient’s charts.

With the help of Vozo’s e-prescription solution, healthcare providers can enhance the quality of healthcare for patients. Reach out to Vozo and Make the e-prescription process much easier than ever before!