Physicians' experiences using commercial e-prescribing systems

Public and private efforts are under way to promote electronic prescribing to improve health care safety, quality, and efficiency. Findings from this qualitative study of physician practices suggest that substantial gaps may exist between advocates' vision of e-prescribing and how physicians use commercial e-prescribing systems today. While physicians were positive about the most basic e-prescribing features, they reported major barriers to maintaining complete patient medication lists, using clinical decision support, obtaining formulary data, and electronically transmitting prescriptions to pharmacies. Three factors help explain the gaps: product limitations, external implementation challenges, and physicians' preferences about using specific product features.