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Advantages of ePrescribing

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) estimates that nationally, use of e-Prescribing technology could eliminate as many as two million harmful drug events each year. The benefits of ePrescribing technology include reducing potentially harmful drug interactions by alerting physicians to possible risks and eliminating illegible physician hand-written prescriptions that can lead to medication dispensing errors. Additionally, ePrescribing has been shown to promote the use of generic drugs and increase formulary compliance, saving money for both patients and health plans. Despite these benefits, only about three percent of U.S. physicians actively use ePrescribing technology.

Medco Leads the Way on ePrescribing

This is Medco's second major ePrescribing effort. In 2005, Medco joined forces with the three largest U.S. auto companies - General Motors, Ford and Chrysler - to launch the Southeast Michigan ePrescribing Initiative (SEMI). Between 2005 and 2007, approximately 2,700 participating physicians have generated nearly 6.2 million prescriptions using ePrescribing technology. A recent analysis of SEMI found that ePrescribing substantially improved patient safety by alerting physicians of risks related to drug interactions and other potential medication errors and resulted in a significant number of prescription changes that prevented potential adverse events. Formulary compliance also improved. The review of 3.3 million electronic prescriptions showed:

-- A severe or moderate drug-to-drug alert was sent to physicians for more

than 1 million prescriptions (33 percent), resulting in nearly 423,000

(41 percent) of those prescriptions being changed or canceled by the

prescribing doctor;

-- More than 100,000 medication allergy alerts were presented, of which

more than 41,000 (41 percent) were acted upo
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