Electronic Prescribing

(ERx)
Mariah Delaire
June 7, 2016
HTM 520
Professor Mark Branning

Agenda
What is E-prescribing?
Benefits
Meaningful Use
Standards
Example Company
Barriers & Challenges
Future Trends
Key Takeaways

Overview
Medication errors are the most common

error in health care (Institute of

Medicine, 2000)

Medication errors are costly

Electronic prescribing is one of the

solutions!

E-Prescribing (ERx)
ERx enables prescribers to electronically

send accurate and error free prescriptions to

a pharmacy

Standalone systems or EHR equipped

systems

HITECH Act, MMA, 2003 and Meaningful

Use have influenced adoption.

Why eRx Is SO Important..

Benefits
Improves patient safety
Improves quality of care
Improves patient satisfaction and medication compliance
Reduces costs associated with medication errors
Reduces time

Meaningful Use

Corresponding Standards
National Council for Prescription Drug Programs (NCPDP)
XML based NCPDP SCRIPT Standard
HL7- NCPDP Standard
ASC X12N 270/271
Structured and Codified Sig
RxNorm

Interoperability of eRx

EPrescribe
Standalone e-prescription software
Partnered with SureScripts, a third party vendor

Barriers & Challenges

Costs
Change management and new

workflow systems
Potential to be time consuming in the
beginning
Connectivity issues
Security concerns

Future Trends
The use of eRx by providers and pharmacies will only increase
Stage 3 Meaningful Use
Reduce Costs
Prevent errors and improve safety

Key Takeaways
Benefits and Challenges
HITECH Act and Meaningful Use has influenced adoption
Many different data standards needed
Cerner & SureScripts
Continued increase in adoption