Healthcare providers should not mine electronic prescribing systems to identify physicians at higher risk of making a serious prescribing error for quality assurance purposes, according to a study published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine.
For their study, researchers conducted a retrospective analysis of prescribing physicians over a 12-month period using an e-prescribing and communication system. Physicians who use the system may receive low-level, intermediate or high-level warnings and alerts when at risk of making a prescribing error. Researchers measured the number of total alerts and physicians' responses to those alerts.
Over the one-year period, 381 physicians logged more than 848,000 prescriptions. Researchers identified 895,029 low-level alerts, with a median of 34 percent heeded; 172,434 intermediate alerts, with a median of 23 percent heeded; and 11,940 high-level 'hard stop' alerts. Furthermore, physicians responded differently to all levels of alerts. The researchers concluded the correlation between intermediate and high-level alerts is insufficient to identify physicians who are at high risk of making serious prescribing errors.
Read the study about e-prescribing errors.
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For their study, researchers conducted a retrospective analysis of prescribing physicians over a 12-month period using an e-prescribing and communication system. Physicians who use the system may receive low-level, intermediate or high-level warnings and alerts when at risk of making a prescribing error. Researchers measured the number of total alerts and physicians' responses to those alerts.
Over the one-year period, 381 physicians logged more than 848,000 prescriptions. Researchers identified 895,029 low-level alerts, with a median of 34 percent heeded; 172,434 intermediate alerts, with a median of 23 percent heeded; and 11,940 high-level 'hard stop' alerts. Furthermore, physicians responded differently to all levels of alerts. The researchers concluded the correlation between intermediate and high-level alerts is insufficient to identify physicians who are at high risk of making serious prescribing errors.
Read the study about e-prescribing errors.
Related Articles on Medication Errors:
12 California Hospitals Fined by Department of Public Health for Patient Safety Violations
Healthcare Providers That Don't E-Prescribe May See 1% Medicare Payment Reduction
Study: Medication Burden, Patient Age Risk Factors for Adverse Drug Events