Substantial majority of physicians agree that ePrescribing improves patient care and safety

DETROIT A new survey of 500 physicians shows that 75 percent of them believe that ePrescribing improves the safety for their patients and almost 70 percent say it improves quality of care.

The survey, which was performed over three years by HaldyMcIntosh & Associates for the Southeastern Michigan ePrescribing Initiative, was set-up to prove that the No. 1 critics of ePrescribing, doctors, would actually find it useful once they began working with it and incorporating it into their day-to-day routine.

Findings from the survey could help assuage those concerns:

• For nine out of 10 surveyed, ePrescribing met or exceeded their expectations.
• More than 70 percent saw a reduction in communications with pharmacies over prescription questions; for 40 percent, the reduction was substantial. Research shows that physicians typically spend more that three hours a day handling phone calls and extra work from prescription issues.
• More than half strongly agree that ePrescribing saves clinicians time and increases productivity.

One of the important benefits of ePrescribing cited by physicians is the safety alert that warns of potentially harmful drug-drug interactions and drug-allergy risks at the time of prescribing. Nearly 65 percent of physician ePrescribers reported at least one incident of changing a prescription in response to a safety alert received through the system.

Another problem that continues to emerge is the price of operating and installing the technology. Two out of three of those polled report being more likely to prescribe a generic or plan-preferred drug when using an ePrescribing system. However, one in four physicians believes that the technology may not reduce costs for their patients or their practice.