Four out of every five adults take at least one medication or dietary
supplement every day, according to the Institute of Medicine. Every
year, hundreds of thousands of prescription drug errors are made due to
handwritten prescriptions. These errors often lead to drug mix-ups,
wrong dosages, dangerous drug interactions and allergic reactions.
To
combat growing quality and safety concerns, a bi-partisan coalition is
trying to pass legislation aimed at expediting the use of electronic
prescribing. "E-prescribing" is when a physician uses a computer or
hand-held computing device to electronically generate and send a
prescription to a pharmacist's computer. The benefits of this
technology include reducing potentially harmful drug interactions by
alerting physicians of possible risks, eliminating illegible physician
hand-written prescriptions and cutting patient wait time at the
pharmacy. Less paperwork and more information for the physician equal
more convenience and lower cost for the patient.
Two trillion
dollars will be spent in healthcare this year in the United States and
experts say about twenty five percent of that is waste and duplication.
E-prescribing will drive down the overall cost of healthcare in the
future, benefiting both individuals and corporations.
