Imagine going to the doctor with a common cold and expecting to receive cold medicine, but when the prescription is picked up from the pharmacy, it is something to treat the West Nile virus.
Medication errors are among the most common medical errors, harming at least 1.5 million people every year and claiming 7000 lives. Doctors' handwriting is to blame for these mistakes, according to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies' Web site.
When visiting a doctor, individuals might think they hear what medicine they are being prescribed, but if they are not listening or misinterpret their doctor, they might not be aware of what to look for at the pharmacy.
Mary Beth Miller, a junior Texas Tech nursing student from Arlington, said she has seen nurses call and confirm an order because they could not decipher what medicine the doctor was prescribing.
"There are definitely a lot of mistakes made, which slows things down," Miller said. "Now doctors are moving to computers so they have to type it in."
Ambar Olivas, a junior business major from Lovington, N.M., said she has never been given the wrong medicine because her doctor calls her prescription in directly to the pharmacy.
"I had no idea this happens," Olivas said. "It is horrible."
According to the National ePrescribing Patient Safety Initiative Web site, as of January 16, all doctors in the United States are able to write electronic prescriptions for free using eRx NOW. NEPSI is the first nationwide effort to improve patient safety by offering a solution to the medication errors that harm millions of people each year.
According to the Web site, physicians are able to write prescriptions electronically, check for potentially harmful drug interactions and ensure that pharmacies provide appropriate medications and dosages.
The program also has the ability to quickly generate secure electronic prescriptions that can be sent computer-to-computer or via electronic fax to 55,000 retail pharmacies - more than 95 percent of all U.S. pharmacies - via SureScripts.
CVS Pharmacist Marc West said the new technology saves pharmacists and technicians the trouble of calling the doctors to clarify what they wrote.
"Sometimes there are still mistakes made because doctors type in the prescriptions wrong," West said. "In the long run, my guess is it will eventually all go to electronic."
West said the electronic delivery of prescriptions also decreases the ability to forge prescriptions because they come directly from doctor's offices.
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