Recommendations for Comparing Electronic Prescribing Systems

Results of an Expert Consensus Process : Guidance to Help Early Adopters and Policymakers Select the Systems Most Likely to Benefit Patients

Douglas S. Bell, Richard S. Marken, Robin Meili, Jason Wang, Mayde Rosen, Robert H. Brook

ResearchPosted on rand.org 2004Published in: Health Affairs - Web Exclusive, May 25, 2004, p. w4-305-w4-317

Commercially available electronic prescribing systems may differ in their effects on patients' health outcomes and on patients' ability to manage costs. An expert panel convened to recommend specific features that would enable electronic prescribing systems to advance these goals. The panel authored sixty recommendations and rated each using a modified Delphi process. Ratings identified fifty-two recommendations as clearly positive for patient safety and health outcomes and forty-three recommendations as achievable in the average clinician's office within three years. Overall, these recommendations offer a synthesis of evidence and expert opinion that can help guide the development of electronic prescribing policy.

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