Analysis of Interventions Performed on Electronic Versus Traditional Prescriptions

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To investigate whether the use of electronic-prescriptions reduces the amount of interventions being performed by pharmacists in a retail community setting. METHODS: Investigators directly observed local community pharmacist for a period of 3 weeks, during the working hours of 9am to 6pm. Information recorded with each intervention was the type of prescription, drug in question, reasons for intervention, final outcome, and time spent performing intervention. RESULTS: After 3 weeks of direct observation a total of 21 interventions were performed on electronic-prescriptions versus 154 interventions on other types of prescriptions (handwritten, faxed, verbal). The percentage of prescriptions that needed interventions was 11.7% of electronic-prescriptions versus 10.3% of all other types (p = 0.565). CONCLUSIONS: In this limited study, the rate of interventions appears to be similar between electronic-prescriptions and other types of prescriptions as a whole.