title: Electronic prescribing increases uptake of clinical pharmacologists' recommendations in the hospital setting.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine whether electronic prescribing facilitates the uptake of clinical pharmacologists' recommendations for improving drug safety in medical inpatients.
  
  
  METHODS
  Electronic case records and prescription charts (either electronic or paper) of 502 patients hospitalized on medical wards in a large Swiss teaching hospital between January 2009 and January 2010 were studied by four junior and four senior clinical pharmacologists. Drug-related problems were identified and interventions proposed. The implementation and time delays of these proposed interventions were compared between the patients for whom paper drug charts were used and the patients for whom electronic drug charts were used.
  
  
  RESULTS
  One hundred and fifty-eight drug-related problems in 109 hospital admissions were identified and 145 recommendations were made, of which 51% were implemented. Admissions with an electronic prescription chart (n= 90) were found to have 2.74 times higher odds for implementation of the change than those with a paper prescription chart (n= 53) (95% confidence interval 1.2, 6.3, P= 0.018, adjusted for any dependency introduced by patient, ward or clinical team; follow-up for two cases missing). The time delay between recommendations being made and their implementation (if any) was minimal (median 1 day) and did not differ between the two groups.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Electronic prescribing in this hospital setting was associated with increased implementation of clinical pharmacologists' recommendations for improving drug safety when compared with handwritten prescribing on paper.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Anne B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Taegtmeyer
authors.forename: Ivanka
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Curkovic
authors.forename: Kaspar
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Rufibach
authors.forename: Natascia
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Corti
authors.forename: Edouard
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Battegay
authors.forename: Gerd A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Kullak-Ublick
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D011307:Drug Prescriptions; D064420:Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions; D055695:Electronic Prescribing; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008508:Medication Errors / Q000517:prevention & control; D008875:Middle Aged; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D010595:Pharmacists / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010607:Pharmacy Service, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration*
chemical_list: D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations