Electronic Prescribing

• What should I do if I discover an error or need to cancel a prescription after it has been electronically sent?

  If a prescription is sent to the wrong pharmacy or under the wrong patient's name, send a cancellation notification to that pharmacy before sending the corrected prescription. If it is during regular pharmacy business hours, call the pharmacy to ensure the prescription is canceled prior to submitting a corrected prescription.

• What can I do to ensure accuracy in submitting prescriptions electronically?

  • Minimize interruptions while submitting electronic prescriptions.
  • Narrate your prescription for your patient as you are entering the information. This can help verify the correct pharmacy, patient, instructions and dosage.
  • Prescribers should review all prescriptions (both new and renewed therapies) before they are sent to ensure accuracy and completeness. Use templates in your e-prescribing system, if available, to ensure accuracy of drug description and directions for use. It is ultimately the prescriber's responsibility to verify prescriptions sent under their license and DEA numbers.

  
  

• How can I ensure patient safety when e-prescribing?

  Give the patient pertinent education handouts about their medications, and print a copy of the directions for use that were submitted with the prescription if they are complicated and/or if they are new instructions for the patient.

• How can I avoid confusion at the pharmacy and reduce phone calls from the pharmacy as a result of my electronic prescription?

  • Be consistent in ordering medications. Always use the same brand name or generic name of each medication to avoid accidentally duplicating a prescription.
  • Avoid sending the same prescription electronically and by fax.
  • Be alert for multiple refill requests of the same medication coming from the pharmacy and the patient.
  • Double-check the prescription before submitting. It is ultimately the prescriber's responsibility to verify prescriptions sent under their license and DEA numbers.

  
  

• How can I ensure I am dispensing the correct medication to the correct patient as intended by the prescriber who is prescribing electronically?

  It is ultimately the prescriber's responsibility to verify prescriptions sent under their license and DEA numbers. However, pharmacies should consider paying special attention to cancellation requests in their workflow queues and verifying there is no cancellation notification received before dispensing the medication. Depending on the e-prescribing system, prescribers may not be able to submit a canceled prescription or retract a prescription, so cancellation notifications may be received in other manners such as phone calls, voicemails or faxes.

• How can I help prescribers ease into the electronic prescribing format?

  Provide helpful feedback about common errors you see submitted in their prescriptions, and work together to improve the quality of prescriptions submitted electronically.