Analysis of prescription errors made by outpatient electronic prescription system

Errors in prescriptions are common phenomena in prescriptions produced by clinicians. With development and application of information technology in medical fields, electronic prescription system has been regarded as the best resolution for effective prevention of errors in prescriptions. A retrospective study of the prescriptions made by the electronic prescription system of the hospital studied over one year showed that this system could reduce errors easily made in manual prescriptions significantly, but it failed to reduce the errors related to dosages. Those dosage-related errors were mainly caused by change of physician prescribing behavior and defective man-machine interaction. Electronic prescription system, though functions basically, can not avoid prescription errors effectively, which poses a potential threat to safe use of medicines in patients. It is urgent at the moment to perfect the functions of electronic prescription system, promote a friendly man-machine interaction and reduce errors made by system errors. Key words: Hospital Information System; Electronic prescription system; Prescription errors; Children