In addition to lowering medication errors, E-prescribing may also increase patient compliance with filling and taking prescription medications, according to 2 recent studies. The first, published in the Journal of Internal Medicine, found that e-prescribing significantly reduced medication non-compliance by patients with newly diagnosed chronic conditions. The patients with electronic prescriptions picked up their meds on average 90 percent of the time. Participants within a non-integrated setting were found to have a non-compliance rate as high as 22 percent: even when facing serious conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and elevated cholesterol.
A second study analyzed 40 million prescriptions and found that compliance was 10 percent higher when utilizing e-prescribing. It also indicated that a whopping 28 percent of paper prescriptions never make it to a pharmacy, a phenomenon dubbed “prescription leakage”. Individuals conducting the study attributed the greater compliance rate of e-prescribing partially to lower out-of-pocket cost: doctors with e-prescribing are more likely to know a patient’s insurance status and history. Hence, they often choose to prescribe less expensive medications.
If e-prescribing is truly affecting medication adherence to such a degree the potential ramifications could be colossal, improving patient outcomes and in turn reducing the cost of healthcare to the individual and our nation as a whole.
At SOAPware, we understand the importance of patient compliance to your practice. Our R(x) manager contains everything you need to utilize in order to satisfy Meaningful Use criteria, while staying on the cutting edge of e-prescribing technology. SOAPware allows users to view current medications, patient medication history, refill requests, and more…all on one well-organized screen. Most importantly, SOAPware R(x) ensures patient safety by displaying patient allergies and drug interactions with ease.
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