This study talks about how people who receive medical care with an integrated health care system with electronic health records in the pharmacy are more likely to collect new prescriptions for their comorbidities (diabetes, cholesterol, high blood pressure medications) than people who receive care in a non-integrated system according to Kaiser Permanente.
Primary non-adherence research conducted in non-integrated systems likely overestimates the percentage of patients who do not have their prescriptions filled. This is because, in a non-integrated system, medication orders from one organization must be linked with pharmacy claims from a different organization. Pharmacy claims databases do not include information on patients who never pick up their first prescription, nor do they contain information on patients who paid cash for their prescription.
I think that these electronic health records benefit both the healthcare professionals and patients. Pharmacists would have a complete and accurate patient record that would include all medications used including over the counter medications. This would also help patients who do not recall all the medications being used including supplements and OTC medication and this in return will help decrease medication errors and drug interactions. Pharmacists can create a more complete Medication Action Plan which can help the patient have an increased medication adherence.
Great article and very interesting shows that e-prescribing improve patient's adherence in regards of their therapy and I totally agree with your statement that electronic health records benefit both the health care professional and the patient with the ultimate goal being the patient's health. Also, with e-prescribing we can eliminate a great percent of errors that a regular prescribing could bring. The e-prescribing as a whole is a great invention that will help everybody involved.
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