This Health Industry Insights Perspective offers an overview of the challenges surrounding implementation and use of eprescribing technology by U.S. healthcare providers.

ePrescribing technology has long been hailed as a panacea for the estimated 1.5 million annual injuries that result from prescription errors each year in the United States (Institute of Medicine, 2006). Demonstrated patient safety benefits have driven industry efforts to increase adoption of eprescribing, yet use of the technology has not grown quickly. In a recent move that further clears the path for widespread adoption of eprescribing, the DEA has announced early steps toward pulling back a federal ban on the use of eprescribing for controlled substances.

The existing federal ban makes an estimated 11?13% of prescriptions ineligible for use with eprescribing but keeps many more prescriptions on paper pads as doctors refuse eprescribing altogether to avoid the inconvenience of workflow considerations surrounding using two separate systems. However, the potential DEA change, if it affects enough prescriptions and introduces safe, secure processes that can be accommodated without disruptive workflow or technology changes, has the potential to unleash this life-saving technology and break down barriers for follow-on healthcare information technologies.

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