INTRODUCTION Electronic prescribing (ePrescribing) systems are rapidly being introduced into National Health Systems (NHS) hospitals in England following their widespread earlier adoption into primary care settings. Such systems require substantial changes in the way pharmacists organise their work and perform their roles. There is however as yet limited evidence on the extent to which these ch...

OBJECTIVE Electronic prescribing (e-prescribing) may substantially improve health care quality and efficiency, but the available systems are complex and their heterogeneity makes comparing and evaluating them a challenge. The authors aimed to develop a conceptual framework for anticipating the effects of alternative designs for outpatient e-prescribing systems. DESIGN Based on a literature re...

An examination of nine hospitals that recently implemented a comprehensive electronic health record (EHR) system finds that clinical and administrative leaders built EHR adoption into their strategic plans to integrate inpatient and outpatient care and provide a continuum of coordinated services. Successful implementation depended on: strong leadership, full involvement of clinical staff in des...

OBJECTIVES To describe current use of electronic prescribing (EP) in English acute NHS hospital trusts, and the use of multiple EP systems within the same hospital. DESIGN Descriptive cross-sectional postal survey. SETTING Acute NHS hospital trusts in England. PARTICIPANTS The survey was sent to chief pharmacists in all acute English NHS hospital trusts in 2011. Where trusts comprised mul...

Enhanced recovery in joint replacement has been shown to reduce length of inpatient stay, reduce re-admission rates, and can improve early functional recovery. Postoperative analgesia is an important component of the group of interventions required to form a holistic enhanced recovery protocol. The introduction of electronic prescribing provides the opportunity to introduce some standardisation...

Significant strides have been made in electronic (e)-prescribing standards and software applications that have further fueled the adoption and use of e-prescribing. However, for e-prescribing to realize its full potential for improving the safety, effectiveness, and efficiency of prescription drug delivery, important work remains to be carried out. This perspective describes the ultimate goal o...

Both researchers and policy-making organizations have identified electronic prescribing (e-prescribing) systems as a means to improve quality in healthcare delivery. However, there are documented risks involved in integrating such clinical systems into healthcare processes. These risks generally fall into two categories. First, new technologies may not accomplish what they are designed to do. S...

Chemotherapy drugs are characterized by low therapeutic indices and significant toxicities at clinically prescribed doses, raising serious issues of drug safety. The safety of the chemotherapy medication use process is further challenged by regimen complexity and need to tailor treatment to patient status. Errors that occur during chemotherapy prescribing are associated with serious and life-th...