The paper prescription seems to be numbered, at least in the United States. Here, in fact, the electronic prescription of medicines (based on the generation of the prescription on the computer by the doctor and on the electronic transmission of the document to the pharmacist) in 2012 was carried out by the 69% of outpatient doctors (for a total of 788 million prescriptions). The trend is strongly increasing, considering that in 2008 the share of "e-prescribers" amounted to 10%. This data comes from "Surescripts", an e-prescribing network used by more than 95% of US pharmacies and which began tracking data in 2008. Leading the example were mainly group medicines, made up of at least 2 to 10 colleagues, who have adopted the system in approximately 65% cases. The internists were particularly inclined towards the new modality, using it at times. The explanation for such a rapid affirmation of the method is not offered, but some federal initiatives certainly influenced, such as the Medicaid and Medicare programs which provided financial incentives for the adoption and use of technologies, and penalties for those who did not use them. Moreover, a recent survey conducted on 500 US doctors verified that the 93% of the sample used electronic medical records (Ehrs), and of these the 95% used them for e-prescribing. Surescripts points out that the 87% of e-prescriptions is shipped from electronic records, while only the 13% comes from a standalone shipping device. A decisive factor of e-prescribing is the universal acceptance of the system in US pharmacies: from the 93% of the drugstores, from the 98% from the chains and from the 85% from the independents. However, there are two critical aspects. Despite the large number of e-prescriptions, these are only dispensed electronically in 44% of cases. Finally, there are regulatory restrictions relating to opioids, for which there is only a prescription on paper.
28 May 2013 – Pharmacist33
