Grossman, J.M., Cross, D.A., Boukus, E.R. & Cohen, G. (2011). Transmitting and processing electronic prescriptions: experiences of physician practices and pharmacies. Journal of the American Medical Association. Doi:10.1136/amiajnl-2011-000515 Electronic transmission of prescription medication requests from doctors' practices to pharmacies has the potential to improve efficiency and reduce medical errors, according to Grossman, Cross, Boukus & Cohen (2011). This paper explores the subjective experiences of physicians and pharmacists, with the intent of identifying both facilitators and barriers of use. The researchers note that use of e-prescription methods is relatively low in spite of federal financial incentives to switch to electronic medical records across the treatment spectrum. Understanding barriers to use is therefore a core component of improving the delivery of care, reducing error, and improving the cost-effectiveness of healthcare.

Grossman et al. (2011) designed a qualitative study to reveal physician and pharmacist impressions of electronic prescription handling. More...

Interview survey questions covered issues such as new prescription filing, prescription renewal, medication history, and communication of data to the insurer. Although methods and research design were limited, and population sample relatively small, the trends do reflect some reasons why physicians are reluctant to use electronic prescriptions on a consistent basis.
The results of the study reveal a general acceptance of electronic prescription formats. However, both pharmacies and private medical practice survey participations agreed that prescription renewal processes were too irregular to be used regularly and consistently. Pharmacists noted that physicians presented the greatest barrier to use, and were generally reluctant to adopt or fully embrace e-prescription methods. This was an observation that was substantiated internally within this research: a full one-third of physician practices interviewed in…