Medication errors could be dramatically cut by using e-prescribing systems, Health Services Research says in a newly published report.
Authors analyzed 12 other studies published between 1990 and 2005 which compared the number of errors occurring with hand-written prescriptions vs. computerized prescriptions. It found hospitals with the highest rates of medication errors (12 percent or more) showed the most improvement. On the other hand, it's sobering to note that while e-prescribing lowered med errors overall, it had no impact on the problem of physicians prescribing the wrong drug. The report underscores that e-prescribing can do a great deal to address the problem of illegible handwriting on scripts, which causes as many as 61 percent of medication errors.
To find out more about the study:
- read this HealthDay article
- read this iHealthBeat article
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