HIQA has published recommendations for an ePrescribing programme in a community setting.
HIQA says the recommendations are based on factors that have been found to support the success of national, community-based ePrescribing programmes internationally.
HIQA’s Director of Health Information and Standards, Rachel Flynn, said: “A national, community-based ePrescribing programme can deliver significant benefits for patients, prescribers and pharmacists. It can improve patient safety considerably by reducing cases of mistaken identity, incorrect dosage, incorrect medication and adverse drug interactions. ePrescribing can also save money and time compared to processing the same prescriptions manually.”
“The recommendations are centred on strong health service governance, leadership, accountability. The implementation of these recommendations will help support the successful development of community-based ePrescribing in Ireland.”
ePrescribing involves the generation of the prescription by GPs, the transmission of prescriptions electronically from GP to pharmacy over national networks and a pharmacist dispensing the prescription.
ePrescribing is used to describe all aspects of the generation and transfer of prescriptions electronically using a dedicated system, whether in paper or electronic form, rather than faxing or emailing the prescription.
Recommendations for the national, community-based ePrescribing programme in Ireland can be found at https://www.hiqa.ie/reports-and-publications/health-information/recommendations-national-community-based-eprescribing.
HIQA’s ePrescribing: an International Review is published as a companion to these Recommendations and is available at www.hiqa.ie.
