E-prescriptions could save lives: study

AAP General News (Australia)
02-01-2012
E-prescriptions could save lives: study

New research suggests using electronic prescriptions could slash medication error rates
in hospitals by up to two-thirds.

A University of New South Wales study has found prescribing errors at two Australian
hospitals dropped between 58 and 66 per cent when commercial e-prescribing systems were
used instead of hand-written scripts.

Procedural errors, such as incomplete or unclear medication orders, fell by over 90
per cent, while the number of serious clinical mistakes, including those that result in
death, decreased by 44 per cent.

But the research also highlighted the fact that the electronic systems themselves created
new - albeit less serious - errors that never occurred in paper-based orders.

AAP RTV ra/af/els/crh

KEYWORD: PRESCRIPTIONS (SYDNEY)

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