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By Mark Henricks

Jokes about doctors’ illegible handwriting may soon join wisecracks about balky mules and buggy whips among examples of anachronistic humor that has been rendered irrelevant by technology. According to a new survey, one out of every three doctors and other prescribing healthcare practitioners in the United States are prescribing electronically, replacing conventional paper prescription pads with electronic systems, and the trend is accelerating rapidly.

The information was compiled by e-prescription network operator Surescripts and released Sept. 21 as part of an event ranking states by their use of electronic prescribing. Massachusetts led the ranking, electronically handling more than 32 percent, or about 11 million prescriptions.  It was followed by Michigan, Rhode Island, Delaware, North Carolina, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Hawaii, Indiana and Florida. The bottom ranking went to North Dakota, which barely edged out Alaska.

While rankings, even on such prosaic matters as electronic prescription rates, generate public interest, the bigger news was probably the overall growth of e-prescribing. In its other research, Surescripts also found that 47 states more than doubled the use of prescription routing during 2009, while 39 more than doubled their use of prescription benefit information.

E-prescribing involves three steps. First the patient’s prescription benefit information is confirmed prior to sending the prescription. Next, a patient’s medication history is cross-referenced with information from pharmacies and payers. Finally, the prescription is electronically routed to the pharmacy the patient has chosen.

All three steps grew significantly last year. Nationwide, electronic requests for prescription benefit information grew from 79 million in 2008 to 303 million in 2009, the company said. The number of prescription histories delivered grew from over 16 million in 2008 to 81 million in 2009. And the number of prescriptions routed electronically grew from 68 million in 2008 to 191 million in 2009.

Comments (4)

	1. 09-23-2010 11:40
	Very interesting article, however, you may want to correct the typo in the title: "Presciption" should read "Prescription". Registered

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	2. 09-27-2010 23:22
	It would be interesting to complement these rising adoption rate figures with some sense of the benefits being accrued from that increased adoption. Registered

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	3. 10-02-2010 04:41
	Well I am glad to see some increase in the amount of technology which is used in the medical field. It seems like a field which should be leading these different technological advances is always behind. Hopefully, as the security gets better and more trusted more providers will provide these benefits.     -sean Registered

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	4. 10-04-2010 17:19
	Not to be overly cynical, the most significant reason for the recent growth of e-prescribing is probably federal incentives that, starting in 2009, reward health care providers who demonstrate "meaningful use" of electronic health records. Registered

Mark Henricks

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