eRx worthwhile, but still problematic for docs, pharmacies

A study by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has found that while physician practices and pharmacies are both interested in e-prescribing’s potential to improve safety and save time, they both face barriers to fully benefiting from it. The study found that e-prescribing reduces the risk of medication errors caused by illegible or incomplete handwritten prescriptions. However, there are still issues with prescription renewals, connectivity between physician offices and mail-order pharmacies, and manual entry of prescription information by pharmacists. Resolving these challenges will become more urgent as more physicians adopt e-prescribing.