Thursday, 20 April 2017
Wednesday, 12 April 2017
Advantages and Disadvantages of E-Prescription (Get In Touch For Academic Writing Services)
Advantages and Disadvantages of
E-Prescription
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Advantages and Disadvantages of
E-Prescription
The last decade saw the evolution of
electronic prescription which is referred to as E-prescription in the field of
medicine. It was introduced in 2003 when Medicare Modernization Act (MMA) was
approved by the Congress. The Act provided a formal definition of
E-prescription but did not require all healthcare providers to adopt. Moreover,
it did provide uniform standards for appropriate implementation and use in the
health care institutions. Most healthcare providers in the United States have
integrated e-prescribing into their systems, and they have e-prescription
routing capabilities. In the modern health care systems, the major concerns are
how to increase patient safety and reduce prescription errors. E-prescription
has demonstrated that it can provide a solution to these issues. Initially,
E-prescription presented several challenges which saw some resistance from
medical practitioners. However, most of these challenges have been resolved,
thanks to technological advancements. These improvements have led to accuracy
in dosing and allergy detection in patients. Although E-prescription provides
several benefits to the medical field, still problems are present. The
objective of this essay is to explain the advantages and disadvantages of
E-prescription in the medical field.
Advantages
The proved advantages E-prescription
include drug costs reduction, improved patient safety, and enhanced access to
patient prescription records and high quality of pharmacy workflow.
Improved
patient safety
In the United States, approximately 1.7
million adverse drug events (ADE) are recorded every year, and they are
believed to account for almost $4 million of government's spending in
healthcare. Some of the problems that may arise due to manual prescription
include; omission of important information, therapy duplication,
misinterpretation of the information due to illegible handwriting, and wrong
dosage. If these errors are identified before the patient get the medicines,
patient care will be delayed due to additional communication between the
provider of the prescription to address the identified errors (Ginzburg, Barr,
Harris, & Munshi, 2009). However, not all mistakes in the prescription are
identified, and this may lead to patient harm or death.
If allergies cannot be identified during
the prescription process, they may add to ADEs (adverse drug events).
E-prescription software is programmed in a way that they notify the provider
with any prescription errors before the data is being transmitted. This ensures
that right information is being used in the prescription to avoid any harm to
the patient.
Drug
cost reductions
Some of the errors identified in manual
prescriptions are the duplication of therapy and wrong medications or dosage.
The provider may overdose the patient making him spend more on the drugs. E-prescription
ensures that no duplication and the right dosage is given. The process also
allows the providers not to prescribe medicines that may cause allergies and
instead it identifies cost-effective therapies.
Enhanced
access to prescription records
E-prescription is important,
particularly when the safety of patients is threatened especially in cases of
drug recalls. Additionally, it comes in handy during cases of natural disasters
that may destroy manual records. Patient care will continue since the providers
can retrieve patient records from e-prescription network that covers almost 95%
of the United States of America (Shawana, et la., 2009). In cases of drug
recalls, pharmacists can trace medication information to individual patients
and deliver this valuable information.
Patient
convenience
The system ensures that the medication
for patients is ready by the time they arrive at the pharmacist. All the
checking between the pharmacist and physician will have been completed in
advance reducing any hurdles for the patients. This means there is adherence to
medication since there will be no delay for patients to access the previous
drugs (Barber, 2010).
Enhanced
security
Electronic prescription is more secure
than written prescriptions. Paper orders are vulnerable to transcription errors
and prone to theft and tampering, making it easy for drug-seeking people easy
to alter them to increase the dosage or number of refills (Barber, 2010).
E-prescriptions are directly delivered to the pharmacist even without patients
getting to know the physician's name. Exposure of the Physician's DEA (Drug
Enforcement Administration) increases identity theft chances or even damaged
the reputation of the doctor. Consequently, it is not easy to leak patient's
information (Brushwood, 2003).
Enhanced
workflow
Much attention has been given to how
e-prescription benefits the patients by preventing medication errors. Moreover,
the health care providers also gain much from this technology. Calls to
providers from other users of the prescription information have been eliminated
providing more time for patient counseling. It (Electronic Prescription) has
also enhanced workflow between the junior medical practitioners and their
seniors. Senior medical practitioners are involved in the prescription while
juniors are more into clerical work than doing the prescription. This has also
contributed to the reduction of errors since it has been established that
juniors make more mistakes than their seniors.
E-prescription does not only benefit the
patients and pharmacists, but it is also advantageous to health insurance
providers, health care providers, employers and the community in general.
Healthcare providers spend less time verifying manual orders. Businesses are
enjoying financial benefits that are provided by this system since it has
reduced health costs they spend on their employees.
Disadvantages
Although E-prescription has reduced the
number of errors committed by medical practitioners, it provides room for new
problems or reintroduces those that are experienced in manual prescription. The
omission of important information wrong patient, incorrect drug prescription
are some of the errors that are associated with E-prescription. Many scholars
have embarked on establishing the problems associated with electronic
prescription besides the resistance that it faces from most medical
practitioners.
Inaccuracy
checking
One of the benefits of electronic
prescription is the additional time it provides for providers to offer other
services such as counseling to the patients. However, this benefit is offset by
the extra time the providers uses to check if there are any inaccuracies in the
prescription. It has been argued that although E-prescription reduces
follow-ups from pharmacists to prescribers, still it necessitates interaction
between the pharmacist and prescribers (Qureshi, Al-Bedah & Koenig, 2014).
Research has shown that still there are inaccurate dosing exists even with
E-prescription. Additionally, it has been established that it is not easy to
detect errors in E-prescription which threatens patient safety. It has also
been noticed that the physicians are likely to choose a wrong patient profile,
this also poses a threat to patient safety since wrong information will be used
in providing care (Qureshi, Al-Bedah & Koenig, 2014).
Design
issues
The designing of the electronic
prescription software determines whether there will be any problems with it.
The features of the software may contribute to an inefficient workflow in the
institution which may necessitate manual entries. Another concern is about
system failures which may lead to longer waiting times for patients.
Additionally, longer waiting times may be caused by late arrival of
prescriptions from the prescribers. E-prescription systems are costly. They
require a huge amount of capital for designing, maintenance, and transaction.
Like all other technological
advancements being witnessed across the world, E-prescription has its
advantages and disadvantages as well. Some of the appealing advantages include
enhanced security and patient safety, reduction of medical prescription errors
and drug costs. However, some of the notable disadvantages include the
reintroduction of some of the prescription errors and disruption in health
environment workflow due to system failures. It is believed that with the
continuous advancements in the technological field, these problems will be
addressed and E-prescription will result in more benefits than enhanced patient
safety. Utilization of E-prescription systems in the future is likely to
enhance workflow between healthcare providers and reduce prescription errors.
References
Barber, N. (2010). Electronic prescribing–safer,
faster, better? Journal of
health services research & policy, 15(suppl 1), 64-67.
Brushwood, D. B. (2003). Maximizing the value
of electronic prescription monitoring programs. The Journal of Law, Medicine &
Ethics, 31(1), 41-54.
Ginzburg, R., Barr, W. B., Harris, M., &
Munshi, S. (2009). Effect of a weight-based prescribing method within an electronic health record on prescribing errors. Am J Health-Syst Pharm, 66, 2037-2041.
Qureshi, N. A., Al-Bedah, A. M., & Koenig,
H. G. (2014). Handwritten to electronic prescriptions:
emerging views and practices, Saudi Arabia. British
Journal of Medicine and Medical
Research, 4(28), 4607.
Shawana, R., Rahman, N., Ahmad, M., Debray, M.,
Ylipettula, M., & Decleves, X. (2010). Electronic
prescribing reduces prescribing errors in public hospitals. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 20, 3233-3245.
Saturday, 14 March 2015
Where do missing marks go?
The missing marks are a
common phenomenon among all public Kenyan Universities. The speech of Professor
Jacob Kaimenyi on 5th November 2014 in a forum with the heads of
universities of Kenya universities discussing on students Unrest revealed that
one of the causes of student’s unrest and strikes is the missing marks. The big
question is where do the missing marks go?
After students have done the exams they submit
their answer sheets to the invigilators who submit them to the lecturers of the
course who mark them. The lecturers mark the exams and record them then return
the exams to the examination department. At times lecturers mix up the papers
and some of them are very poor record keepers who end up not recording other student’s
marks. Other students forget to write their admission numbers on the answer
sheets or they write them in an unclear manner that they cannot be read. Those
who realize they have a missing mark make a follow up early on their missing marks.
However it’s not easy to get the missing mark recorded because even locating
the lecturer who taught you the course is a big problem. You are likely to be
told the lecturer went to study abroad, the lecturer is not available, and they
are temporarily out of the country to attend an international meeting and other
such excuses. Lazy students will lose the morale to make follow up on the missing
marks until the graduation is around. Before graduating
students are given a chance to confirm their names are correctly written and
their marks are recorded well in all the exams that they sat throughout their
study period. This is the time when others realize that they have a missing
mark. The period is long enough to allow for the students to look up for the
lecturers who taught them the course, the lucky ones find their answer sheets
and their problems are sorted before they graduate. The unlucky ones have to
wait for another academic year and seat for the exam. This leads to delayed graduation
and realization of students dreams.
The issue of missing marks
is an all round responsibility. The student and the lecturers should be
involved in ensuring that the marks are recorded appropriately and whenever the
student miss their marks they should make a follow up as early as possible.
Thursday, 12 March 2015
A we in Hell?
A walk along the
academic highway makes one feel like they are walking in some kind of place
called the land of hopelessness. The hot sun makes one feel like they are in
hell, the dry flower beds makes one think is like the world has come to an end
as predicted in the bible, the dry grass makes one feel like they are in the
western Sahara Desert, strong wind blowing with a lot of dust makes one feel like
they are in Nothern Kalahari desert. This is the kind of feeling that comes with
the month of March. This is the time when most people will prefer to stay in
their rooms and wait for the day to end instead of walking around the institution
in all that hot sun.
 |
| Dry grass at Moi University Football playground |
Life in the stage residential
hostels makes one feel the smell of Satan on earth. Water shortage is a serious
crisis where people have to compete for the limited available water. People
have to wake up very early to tap water for their domestic use. The earlier the
better, because nobody cares about the other persons. When will this season
really come to an end?
Do we learn from mistakes?
One of the notable things that you are likely to observe in
any room in the hostels is the series of naked wire connection whose operation
is only understood by the room occupants. It’s only in Moi University where the
students have control over the kind of life that they stay in the hostels. Cooking
using coils and other electric appliances is a common phenomenon in all hostels
in Moi University. The electricity is the main source of power for preparing
meals. Last year a room in Hostel M was burnt down to ashes because of an
electric connection problem in the name of connection cooking beans in the
room. That was not the first time that the incidence happened. After that
people were sensitized in different forums about electric connection in their
rooms. The big question is; do we learn from mistakes?
 |
| electric cables connecting cooking coil hanging from ceiling board in hostel |
My walk in one of the hostels confirms my doubts that
students never learn from mistakes. A series
of electric connection is the first thing that my eyes could see. There is a
rule about the illegal cooking and illegal electric connections s, but does
this law really apply? When I talked to David, one of the room occupants he said,
“The rule against illegal cooking and illegal connection is only applied when a
student is in a serious problem in regard to room maintenance.”
When there are blackouts the students blame the university administrators,
the university administrators blame the university hostel administration, the
university hostel administration blames the students, and it’s all a series of
blame game. The big question is who is really to be blamed?
Tuesday, 10 March 2015
Lecturer Class Absenteeism
One of the characteristics of a university is the fact that
one can decide to come to class or not to come. However this rule is trick as
one is required to maintain at least a 20% class attendance as a student. The
big question is, are the same rules applied to the lecturers?
It’s a common practice in Moi University for classes to bounce.
The big question is when the students will get the knowledge if at all the
classes are not attended. According to a report by UNESCO, Kenyan Universities
are among the category of the poorest universities in Africa. Moi University is
ranked number 17. Is very common practice for students to attend a class and a
lecturer does not show up. It’s a clear show of irresponsibility from the
trainers as their major duty is to train the students something which they do
hurriedly after missing a series of classes. Joseph Juma, a third year student
in the school of education said, “ When I was in first year I had a target of a
first class but as by now there are no any hopes of first class honors degree.
The lectures have contributed to my failure because of poor class attendances.”
Somebody somewhere is sleeping on their job. Should the students
form a monitoring body dealing with class attendances? if so what action can students
take against lecturers who fail to come to class?
Class Venue Crisis
The two classes had confusion over the class venue. The third
year students had been using the launch class since the semester started. The second
year alleged that they were allocated the class but had not been holding it
there because their lecturer Brian, had gone abroad for studies. The lecturer
came back and was allocated a different class which they had been using. Today they
were sitting for a CAT and they wanted a larger space to use for the CAT. The third
year media students who were the first occupants claimed that the class was
allocated to them and they won’t get out, “we can’t go out this is the class we
have been using since the semester started”, said Mubaruq, a third year media
student. It took the intervention of the lecturers to negotiate for the class
allocation and later the second years were relocated to another class.
Venue confusion is a common crisis in the school of
information science given the fact that the number of available classes cannot
carry all the students fully. Under several circumstances class venues have
been an issue and the end result is negotiation among the lectures. The feeling
of superiority among the third years can be expressed by their desire to occupy
any class they want. Up to when will this crisis end?
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