E-prescribing brings fresh errors

ELECTRONIC prescribing systems have “enormous potential to improve medicines safety”, but they are introducing new errors, Australian Prescriber reports.

The NPS Medicinewise publication noted that a survey of 644 users of electronic prescribing systems in Victoria, including pharmacists, doctors and nurses, found 58% believed the e-prescribing platforms created new types of mistakes.

An audit of discharge medications from a Brisbane hospital found more errors in computer-generated scripts than those produced using a paperbased system.

The most frequent errors recorded by e-prescribing software include, wrong medication selection and wrong log-in, as a result of a previous user failing to log-out of the system when using a shared terminal.

However, the authors said there was “little doubt that computerised prescribing reduces medication errors”.