[Prescription errors after the implementation of an electronic prescribing system]

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Patient Safety
• Clinical Pharmacy

Background:

• Manual prescribing systems are prone to medication errors during prescription and transcription.
• Electronic prescribing systems offer a potential solution to mitigate these errors.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare medication errors between manual and electronic prescribing systems.
• To evaluate the impact of electronic prescribing on prescription and transcription phases.

Main Methods:

• A prospective study conducted in pneumology and infectious diseases units.
• Comparative analysis of medication errors before and after electronic prescribing system implementation.
• Data collection included prescription, transcription, and administration recording errors.

Main Results:

• A significant reduction in errors was observed post-implementation: 14.4% (manual) vs. 1.3% (electronic).
• Relative risk reduction for errors ranged from 78.91% to 100%, with statistically significant improvements.
• Absolute risk reduction for specific error types (drug data, dose, frequency, route) was between 5.09% and 30.45%.

Conclusions:

• Electronic prescribing systems demonstrably reduce medication errors.
• Implementation leads to improved quality and safety of patient drug treatment.
• The study highlights the benefits of digital health solutions in clinical practice.