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IMPLEMENTATION OF ASSISTED ELECTRONIC PRESCRIPTION IN THE OUTPATIENT AREA

European Statement

Patient Safety and Quality Assurance

Author(s)

JUDIT PERALES PASCUAL, HERMINIA NAVARRO AZNAREZ, ANA LOPEZ PEREZ, LUCIA CAZORLA PODEROSO, IRENE AGUILO LAFARGA, ANA PEÑAS FERNANDEZ, Mª REYES ABAD SAZATORNIL

Why was it done?

Despite the volume of patients seen at UPEX, the complexity of care and the cost of the treatments, in 2019 the prescription was transcribed by pharmacists with the consequent risk/investment of time that this entails. The aim was to incorporate organizational/technological changes that would improve the safety and quality of pharmaceutical care.

What was done?

An outpatient is a patient who goes to the outpatient unit of their Hospital Pharmacy Service (UPEX) to collect a drug for hospital use/diagnosis or foreign drug (it will be administered without health personnel intervention).
We collaborated in the design and validation of the PresSalud®(Dominion®) program, developing the implementation of assisted electronic prescribing (AEP) as an objective in the SAMPA project (Registration and Promotion Service for Adherence to Medications for Elderly Patients).

How was it done?

Access from the electronic medical record to the prescription, the integration of the latter with the dispensing program and the latter with the pharmacy item program guarantees an increase in the safety of medication use by incorporating clinical decision aids.
Different prescription assistance protocols were developed. Presentations and sessions were given to hospital doctors explaining how to prescribe through PresSalud® adapting them to the different services implemented with AEP.

What has been achieved?

In 2018, the AEP was implemented in the infectious, digestive, dermatology, rheumatology, neurology and hematology service (only in hemophilia consultations). Between May-September 2020, it was expanded. It is currently 92.3% implemented and 100% is expected by the end of 2021 (with the rest hematology consultations).

Currently, the percentage of prescriptions to outpatients using AEP with respect to the total prescriptions in this area is 83%; this increase contributes to avoid errors in transcription and to reduce the time spent in checking the prescription, providing greater safety in the use of the medication and better patient care which translates into higher quality of care.

What next?

The implementation of the AEP guarantees safe and efficient prescription; in short, the organizational/technological changes that this entails contribute to improving the quality of pharmaceutical care received by the patient. The proposed solution can be easily extended to other hospitals implementing AEP.

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