Paper prescriptions and electronic prescribing are two contrasting methods of medication management. The healthcare environment continues to morph along with the method of prescription creation. This paper is an attempt to shed light on how the two ways differ from one another, listing the advantages that each mode produces as well as the shortcomings of each in regard to both healthcare providers and patients and health care systems themselves. What are Electronic Prescribing? The term e-prescribing refers to a computer crafted and transmitted prescription except for a printed format. The process can take place with the use of a computer, or a tablet or even a mobile phone. Information of the prescription is captured directly by the prescriber using an electronic health record system. Characteristics of e-prescribing Direct Transference: The E-prescriptions are transmitted to the pharmacy. Thus, a paper prescription that the patient has to carry will be avoided. Real-time Alerts: E-prescribing systems can alert health care providers about real-time interactions of drugs, allergic reactions, and dosing mistakes that increase the safety of a patient. Patient History Access: Access to patient medication history increases the prescribing skills of health care providers. Better Workflow: Apart from the above, e-prescribing with EHRs has streamlined the workflow for the prescribers. What are Paper Prescriptions? The prescriptions that the prescribers complete in paper then hand over to the patient in a hard copy that the patient has to take physically to the pharmacy for dispensing. That was the prescription writing way in the old times for centuries. Traditional Prescription: Important Attributes Paper Prescription on Paper: Prescription is on paper. The prescription has to be taken to a pharmacy by the patients. Handwritten Reconciliation: The pharmacists have to write down the prescription information in their records, and it is one of the major sources of transcriptional errors. Inadequate Medication History: The healthcare providers do not get an instant of a detailed view of a patient’s medication history. Thus, the interactions are hard to identify. Paper prescriptions tend to get misplaced or even stolen. This puts the patient and pharmacies in danger. Electronic Prescribing Vs. Traditional Prescriptions 1- Safety and Accuracy E-Prescribing: The greatest advantage of e-prescribing is patient safety, in my view. Any e-prescribing system, by definition, contains decision support that pop-up reminders to a healthcare provider possible drug interactions, allergies, and contraindications. Real-time feedback from such systems may prevent adverse drug events as well as improve quality care. Electronic prescriptions eliminate the possibilities of misinterpretation via poor handwriting or vague instructions. Old Drugs. The prescription of the old medicine has been there from time immemorial. That is, they have been existing for ages; sometimes the inscriptions inside include unclear writings with imperfections. This leads to errors that often deceive pharmacists in presenting such prescriptions and, therefore leading to drug-related problems with the patient. 2- Efficiency and Inconvenience E-Prescribing: Efficiency comes because of optimizing the process of writing a prescription. The doctor can pen an easy prescription and then email it to a chosen pharmacy in time to spare the patient many hours of delay. Convenience does not stop at the doctor’s office for patients-they do not have to carry paper prescriptions with them very often; theirs is ready upon pickup. Traditional Prescriptions: The traditional prescribes one more step to the patient; that is, the prescription should be handed in personally at the pharmacy. This leads to added wait time and even delay in getting the prescribed medicine. Book Free Demo 3- Cost-Effectiveness E-Prescribing: One advantage in the use of e-prescribing is that it can reduce cost in the long run. For example, if the health care systems lower the medication errors, adverse drug events, hospitalizations and ED visits, then they are cutting their cost. Furthermore, electronic systems may help manage medication therapy better, and this might potentially be more cost-effective. Traditional Prescriptions: The cost of traditional prescription may also include potential costs of prescription error that ultimately might mean increased treatment cost and admission. But when set-up cost of the system might be on higher side of small practice of e-prescribing systems then they would pay up eventually too. 4- Patient Participation and Satisfaction E-Prescribing: E-prescribing supports the enhancement of activation as the patients will automatically receive reminders from the prescribers about the prescriptions that have been issued. The patient also can access his/her medication history and fills through a patient portal included with most EHR systems. This can potentially help enhance patient satisfaction and adherence to therapy. Patients on traditional prescriptions care less about their drug management. Patients in such prescriptions would often request the provider about their history of drugs that can only be retrieved if a patient requested the same. 5- Challenges and Limitations E-Prescribing: While e-prescribing has been treasured for its advantage, there is some disadvantage of undertaking it in practice. Technical constraint may include system breakdown or slow Internet connection hitch may slow down the process of prescribing. Not all pharmacies are e-prescription-capable, so that becomes a problem for the patient. Finally, there is a concern about electronic data transmission being used to ensure that sensitive information of patients does not fall into the wrong hands. Traditional Prescriptions. Traditional paper-based prescriptions are easy to lose, or even be stolen, and worse still, become forged. It takes some reasonable time before most patients get access to drugs simply because pharmacies run on few hours, take long in processing and, in a few cases, communicate other providers inaccurately. Impact on the Healthcare Providers With the introduction of e-prescribing, prescription management becomes different through its integration into the EHRs. Healthcare providers can easily smoothen out their workflows by enhancing quality care delivery. These are a few impacts for the healthcare provider as follows. 1- Simplify Workflow Probably the biggest advantage of such systems is a reduction of the administrative work load associated with prescriptions, thereby lessening the hassle that providers experience while handling prescriptions. Since it’s very easy and fast to input and transmit prescriptions, providers are able to devote much