Electronic prescribing increasing in popularity

More than 140,000 (23 percent) of all office-based physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants in the U.S. are now using electronic prescribing, according to Surescripts. At the current pace, the company projects, the total number of health care professionals prescribing medication electronically via its network this year will more than double from the 74,000 active electronic prescribers who used it at the end of last year.

“E-prescribing is worthwhile for me because I can create a prescription in one-quarter of the time it took me previously, as it is automatically recorded into our system,” says Greg Fuller, MD, a family physician in Keller, Texas, according to a news release from Surescripts. “This is also very beneficial for tracking and managing potential drug interactions with other medications. Plus, it solves the age-old problem of illegible handwriting.”

Narinder Batra, MD, an internist and pediatrician at Lenawee Adult & Pediatric Medicine located in Adrian, Michigan, says, “The e-prescribing process adds efficiencies to our practice in many ways, as time-consuming faxes have been eliminated, making our patient service more efficient,” according to the release. “We also no longer need to regenerate prescriptions, due to the automatic electronic record keeping. Formulary review also significantly reduces costs, and drug interactions and allergies are also checked, which avoids complications.”