Computerized Outpatient Prescriptions Still Have Errors

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Researchers from three Boston, Massachusetts medical centers, Harvard Medical School, and CVS Pharmacies analyzed records from automated prescription systems and found error rates similar to prescriptions written manually. The team’s findings appear online in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association (paid subscription required).

The panel of clinicians reviewed 3,850 prescription records from a four-week period in 2008. These prescriptions were generated by automated prescription systems and received by a pharmacy chain in three different states.

The analysts identified and classified medication errors, then tabulated the incidence of medication errors, potential adverse drug events — defined as errors with potential for harm — and rate of prescribing errors by type of error and by prescribing system.

The team found nearly 12 percent of the prescriptions — 452 of 3,850 — had errors, in a few cases multiple errors. Of those prescriptions with errors, about one-third (35%) were considered serious enough to be classified as potential adverse drug events. None, however, were considered life-threatening. These error rates found for automated prescription systems are consistent with the literature on manual handwritten prescription error rates.

The prescriptions analyzed were generated by 13 different automated systems. The error rates for these systems ranged from 5 to 37 percent. The most common error was information left out of the record, which occurred in about six in 10 (61%) prescriptions with errors.

The authors conclude that automated prescription systems may have the potential to reduce medication errors, but the systems need to have functions built in to prevent errors — such as quality checks to highlight required information that’s missing — as well as supporting business processes.

Read more: FDA Adverse Drug Event Reports Jump in Past Decade

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