Last updated on Wednesday, 8, January, 2025
E-prescribing can therefore be described as the generation and transfer of prescriptions electronically by prescribers to the pharmacies. Its goal was to be more efficient, safer and reduce the repeated medication errors and at the same time enrich the other aspects of patient care. Nevertheless, concerning virtually any advancement in technology, implications to security are incredibly dire. Thus, this paper explores the safety of electronic prescribing, the benefits and risks, as well as protection for patient information.
Table of Contents
Understanding Electronic Prescribing
What is E-Prescribing?
Using electronic prescriptions means the creating of prescriptions by a prescriber electronically or passing of prescriptions between the prescriber and a pharmacist. Telepharmacy or electronic prescribing systems exclude prescriptions on paper all together. This means there will be no inherent errors resulting from handwriting prescriptions. The access to a patient’s medication history also allows the provider to make more informed decisions.
Advantages of E-Prescribing
There are many benefits associated with e-prescribing, among which are:
- Improved. E-prescribing reduces the opportunities for medication prescription and dispensing errors as well as misinterpretation due to the absence of handwriting.
- Efficiency: The prescription reaches the pharmacy immediately. A patient is discharged sooner, and at the same time, streamlines the provider workflow.
- Access to Patient Records: All the E-prescribing systems are integrated to the EHR that enable the provider get full details about the medications, allergies and additional information about the patient.
- Medication Management: The e-prescribing systems will be able to alert the providers about the possible interactions, allergies or even duplication of therapy hence increasing patients’ safety.
- Patient Convenience: Patients will be able to select their desired pharmacy and will even be informed when their prescriptions are ready for collection.
Electronic Prescribing Security Issues
Even though e-prescribing has its benefits, there are also a number of security issues that arise, and these have to be resolved to protect the patient’s data and ensure safe prescribing practice.
1- Data Privacy
Patients’ data about privacy is one of the critical problems related to e-prescribing since the electronic prescription contains sensitive demographics about the patient, medications, and the prescribing doctor. That makes it form a highly probable source of vulnerable access if such protection is not provided, and therefore, threatened with breaches into privacy.
2- Cyber security threats
Like any other digital system, there are always risks of hacking, malware and phishing on e-prescribing systems. Cybercrime can affect Health care organizations in two ways; as a way to steal important data or as a way of denying service delivery. A cyber-attack may compromise patient data and disrupt the prescribing process and possibly put patients at risk.
3- System Reliability
E-prescribing systems depend on technology; therefore, errors are possible and sometimes inevitable. Technical malfunction or system downtime prevents the view of a patient’s medical history or transmission of prescription to the healthcare provider. In this regard, it is possible to delay treatment to the patients. Thus, reliability as well as uptime of the e-prescribing systems are necessary for the safety of patients.
4- Human Error
While e-prescribing minimizes the possibility of mistakes due to illegible writing, it is impossible to avoid making a human error. Providers must be trained on how the electronic prescribing system is correctly used. If the users are sloppy, then they might commit medication or dosing errors.
Steps to Overcome Electronic Prescribing Security Risk
The security risk involved with electronic prescribing can be overcome through the following steps.
1- Authenticated Protocols
Strong authentication protocols by the healthcare organization ensure that only authorized personnel are able to access e-prescribing systems. Such a protocol could include multi-factor authentication, where one would require various means of identification to access information deemed sensitive.
2- Data Encryption
Data encryption for the transmission and storage of information should be part of an e-prescribing system to prevent information falling into the wrong hands concerning patients’ details. The systems of e-prescribing should apply advanced standards of encryption, which would help ensure data protection while at the same time upholding confidentiality.
3- Security Audits Periodically
The healthcare organizations should carry out periodic security analyses in the e-prescribing systems. It can help to detect the existing vulnerabilities within the system. Thereby, the healthcare organizations will be able to decide which aspects of the implemented security need improvement in its measures for ensuring the security of the patient’s information.
4- Employee Training
Proper education on the proper usage of an e-prescribing system to the healthcare service providers and all the employees must be done. Educating employees with the best practices, recent cyber threats, and how to respond in case any breach is faced must be done up to date.
5- Monitoring System
E-prescribing systems should be monitored in real time, and this helps in the identification of suspicious activities and potential security breaches. Organizations can monitor the activity in their system with automated tools, receiving alerts about unusual behavior.
6- Compliance with Regulations
The e-prescribing systems are legal in the United States where it is categorized under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act-HIPAA. It ensures that all health care organizations follow standard that would guarantee that patient information and data are safe.
Conclusion
Electronic prescribing is a great achievement in the health sector. This has improved the efficiency and safety of the prescription process. However, despite various advantages, there are certain security concerns that have to be taken into consideration while adopting e-prescribing to ensure safety of the patient’s data. Proper security measures, training for health care providers, and adherence to the regulations and guidelines may help to minimize the risks associated with e-prescribing.
As the landscape of health care is changing, the patient, provider, and organization must continually be vigilant and proactive in preserving the confidentiality of such sensitive information. Health sectors can ensure that technology is utilized properly with best available security features in the protection of patient information and integrity of the prescription by securing electronic prescribing.
FAQs
1- Is electronic prescribing safer than a standard paper prescription?
Yes, e-prescribing is relatively safer than the paper prescription. Moreover, there is less scope of misinterpretation by the handwriting, and therefore, in turn, the possibilities of medication errors are reduced. Besides these, there are some more safety features within the e-prescribing systems that provide security while patient care with features like drug interaction and allergy alerts.
2- What if an e-prescribing system crashes?
For instance, in the event of failure or downtime of an e-prescribing system, providers will always revert back to their traditional means of prescribing which is writing prescriptions. In such a case, this will delay patient treatment further and expose the patients to some of the possible prescription drugs usage by the prescriber who paid no particular attention in his writing.
This is, therefore, to mean that organizations have a mandate of putting contingency measures.
3- How do patients ensure security while using e-prescribing?
Patients can follow the following to ensure their information is safe when using e-prescribing:
- Be Informed: Patients should ask their healthcare providers about the e-prescribing system used and the safety measures they have adopted.
- Use Secure Channels: Patients should converse with their physicians only through secure channels and must never discuss any personal details on insecure channels.
- Monitoring Prescription Activity: Patients are supposed to examine their prescription history and medication chart at times in case of a possible error or wrong entry.