Alberta looking at switch to e-prescriptions

By Gillian Slade on February 15, 2018.

gslade@medicinehatnews.com  @MHNGillianSlade

Dispatching a prescription from the doctor’s office to a pharmacy may be one click away if a pilot project is successful.

It would have physicians transmitting a prescription directly from electronic medical records to a pharmacy the patient has chosen.

E-prescribing, or PrescribeIT, has been used in different health systems for some time but only recently discussed in Alberta, says Greg Eberhart, registrar of the Alberta College of Pharmacists.

The pilot project includes a small portion of pharmacies in Lethbridge over the next six to 12 months.

“The first was a Pharmasave pharmacy but there are others coming on board as part of the demonstration project,” said Eberhart. “I think the greatest opportunity is the principle of trying to improve communication between health-care professionals. Any way we can facilitate improved communication between health professionals and to ensure that information is shared securely and in a timely manner, has potential.”

It is “an exciting opportunity for patient care and pharmacy management. In addition to streamlining pharmacy workflow, it will likely improve patient compliance and convenience,” Jay Johal, a Lethbridge Pharmasave manager, said in a press release.

Prescriptions are currently either printed and given to the patient in the doctor’s office or faxed from the physician’s office to a pharmacy.

Faxing has the potential for being sent to a different destination than the one intended but e-prescribing is not necessarily error free either.

The patient may identify a pharmacy of choice but there is the potential for data to be entered that sends it to a different pharmacy in error, said Eberhart.

“If you have a busy physician and the wrong information is entered you are going to get a wrong prescriptions at the other end,” said Eberhart. “In the context of our college we are in a wait-and-see mode. We’re not sure whether this particular solution is the best solution for the future.”

Still, e-prescribing has the potential to be more secure than faxing, and would be a convenient means for pharmacists to communicate with the prescribing physician to request refill authorizations, said Eberhart.

A member of staff at a local family medical practice said e-prescriptions would cut down on printing costs and faxing, but some patients simply don’t know which pharmacy they want to use. Some patients lose their prescription before they get to a pharmacy, and e-prescribing would solve that issue.

It may take time for people to feel comfortable walking out of the doctor’s office without a prescription paper in their hands. Some people like to scrutinize the prescription so they can see what has been prescribed, staff said.

E-prescribing will not speed up dispensing a prescription at the pharmacy. You can’t leave your doctor’s office, drive to the pharmacy and expect your prescription to be ready for pickup, said Eberhart.

“This is not about increasing the speed at which prescriptions are processed. Our standards have not changed. Our standards will not change,” said Eberhart.

A pharmacist’s first responsibility is to assess the appropriateness of the prescription and whether it is the right drug prescribed for the right reason in the right dose, said Eberhart.

“I think it is really important that this concept of e-prescribing is discussed in the right way and that it should not be perceived as a means of expediting the processing of prescriptions.”

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