Citation

Hirschtritt ME, Chan S, Ly WO. Psychiatr. Serv. 2018; 69(2): 129-132.

Affiliation

Dr. Hirschtritt is with the Department of Psychiatry and Dr. Ly is with the Department of Medical Education, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), San Francisco. Dr. Chan is with the Clinical Informatics Fellowship Program in the UCSF Division of Hospital Medicine. Dror Ben-Zeev, Ph.D., is editor of this column.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, American Psychiatric Association)

DOI

10.1176/appi.ps.201700269

PMID

29241438

Abstract

Preliminary evidence from observational and cohort studies suggests that replacement of paper- and phone-based medication prescriptions with electronic prescribing systems in ambulatory settings is associated with decreased medication errors. However, problems from traditional prescribing also occur with e-prescribing (such as incorrect medication dose and instructions or wrong patient), as do some new problems (a confusing user interface leading to prescribing the wrong medication). The authors present four steps for reducing medication errors in outpatient psychiatric settings: continuing to implement e-prescribing, streamlining user interfaces, improving interoperability among various e-prescribing and retail pharmacy systems, and using education and advocacy to achieve these goals.

Language: en

Keywords

Computer technology; Private practice; Public policy issues; Quality improvement; Quality of care