Impact of Electronic Prescription on Prescribing Errors

Aims: There are series of medical errors that can be prevented by taking precautions. Therefore, the study evaluates the impact of the electronic prescribing system on prescription errors.

Study Design: A pre-post study design was conducted.

Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted at outpatient pharmacy services of a teaching hospital in Jeddah city.

Methodology: Prescriptions were evaluated for the presence of the essential prescription elements such as patient information, drug name, dose, frequency, strength, and other prescription completeness parameters.

Results: In the pre-intervention study, 1182 handwritten prescriptions were evaluated, and 6627 errors were detected from these prescriptions. The length of the pre-and post-intervention period was two weeks each. The most prevalent prescribing errors were that of medications written without defined dosage forms were recorded 1653 (55.90%) time followed by prescriptions written by trade names 1493 (22.5%), without route of administration 1266 (19.1%), and without specified duration 1009 (15.2%). However, 1512 prescriptions were evaluated in the post-intervention study, among which 339 errors were detected. The errors included prescriptions written without diagnosis (5.09%), or without doctor’s name or stamp (1.52%), written by trade names (4.49%), without defined dosage forms (4.29%), and without specified duration (2.84%).

Conclusion: The study concluded that E-prescribing eliminated prescription errors that resulted from handwritten prescriptions.