Sounds too good to be true, but Canada HealthInfoway is working hard to make this a reality.
An e-prescribing system works by having the prescription electronically transfer from the physician’s office software, directly into the pharmacy software. This isn’t a novel idea, with several pharmacies and doctor’s offices already having their own systems in place. However, Canada Health Infoway is looking to create one national system, called PrescribeIT, to redefine the standard across all pharmacies and clinics.
PrescribeIT has one feature that other e-prescribing systems lack, the ability to communicate to the physician if the prescription has been filled1. This may seem like a small feature, but doctors have generally been left in the dark, not knowing if their prescriptions are being filled. Prescribers can become frustrated if they’re unsure the patient’s condition isn’t responding due to inadequate therapy or if the patient is non-adherent. PrescribeIT is a step forward to solving this problem and improving pharmacist-doctor communication.
E-prescribing can be a blessing and a curse to pharmacists. On one hand, they no longer have to interpret (sometimes poor) doctor handwriting; this job will already be completed by e-prescribing. In a St. Johns study, e-prescriptions had an error rate of 0.66%, and hand written prescriptions 1.33%2. The caveat is that errors will be far more difficult to catch. If a doctor accidently inputs the wrong drug or patient into the e-prescribing tool, through a wrong click, it may be impossible to determine if it’s in error. Therefore, it will be crucial that pharmacists communicate with patients to determine if the medication is appropriate. This is a practice that pharmacists are already doing, but will now become even more important.
Don’t get too excited yet, as PrescribeIT is only just being trialed at Algonquin Family Health Team and the Muskoka Medical Pharmacy in Ontario1. It will likely be a few years until we see it rolling out to other Canadian pharmacies. This is an exciting new technology that will hopefully improve the standard of care in pharmacies.
- Ajay Chahal
References
- (n.d.). Retrieved September 20, 2017, from http://www.canadianhealthcarenetwork.ca/pharmacists/news/canadas-first-national-e-prescribing-platform-goes-live-40568
- Phillips, J. L., Shea, J. M., Leung, V., & MacDonald, D. (2015). Impact of Early Electronic Prescribing on Pharmacists’ Clarification Calls in Four Community Pharmacies Located in St John’s, Newfoundland. JMIR Medical Informatics, 3(1), e2. http://doi.org/10.2196/medinform.3541
