Benefits of E-Prescribing

A study by MGMA’s Group Practice Research Network estimated that the time spent managing unnecessary administrative complexity related to prescriptions can be valued at approximately $15,700 a year for each full time physician. This figure is based on time associated with manually processing refills, resolving issues related to formulary (which specifies a patient’s drug coverage) as well as issues related to dosage and legibility. It is important to note that this estimate does not take into consideration the time spent managing faxes…doing so may drive these drive these estimates even higher*. E-prescribing can reduce the amount of time your practice spends on these unnecessary activities - which could translate into more time with patients for physicians and more efficient use of staff.
*2004 MGMA – Analyzing cost of administrative complexity in group practice.

Another study conducted by Brown University in 2006 showed that the average time per day spent managing prescription refills for both physicians and staff was cut in half once the practice implemented pharmacy connectivity.

These efficiencies have been shown to add up to real savings for practices that have established e-prescribing connectivity to their local pharmacies:

Click on the quote to view full “Peer Perspectives"

“By automating the entire prescribing process— both new prescriptions and refills, and all related documentation— my practice is saving an estimated 10 hours each week, just by reducing the number of calls and faxes needed to handle all of these prescriptions” -- Dr. David Gorelick, Newport, RI.

“After streamlining and improving almost every part of the entire prescription process with the use of e-prescribing, we have been able to accept three to five additional patients each day, without having to work longer hours,” Dr. Lorenver Po, Holyoke, MA

By streamlining and automating the overall prescription refill process, “we’re saving more than 2 hours each day — time that can now be spent on other, more patient-oriented tasks.” Richard King, D.O, Las Vegas, NV

"In our last year alone, through a combination of reduced overhead costs and increased revenue (from being able to see more patients), we saved roughly $40,000, and we’re a medium-sized practice. For larger practices, the economic impact will be much more dramatic”. -- Robert Resnik, M.D., Cary, NC

A study from the Center for Information Technology Leadership estimates that electronic prescribing, with clinical decision support, has the potential to reduce preventable adverse drug events (ADEs) by more than 60% over traditional paper based prescription writing.

E-Prescribing holds the potential to significantly improve patient safety by:

• Reducing the risk of medication errors — by eliminating reliance on handwritten paper prescriptions as well as phone and fax based communications between physicians and pharmacies, and by providing doctors with real-time electronic functionality that automatically checks for dangerous drug-drug and drug-allergy interactions
• Reducing the potential for fraud or tampering — by eliminating the use of handwritten or printed prescriptions that can be altered (in terms of number of pills or refills) before reaching the pharmacist (this is especially important for narcotic pain medications and other controlled substances)
• Providing access to a patient’s medication history — by securely aggregating and presenting patient-specific medication histories from community pharmacies and payer sources to physicians in real time at the point of care. This capability helps physicians make a more informed check for potentially harmful drug interactions.