How an electronic prescription tool enables better prescription quality for patients

Abstract

Introduction: Medication-related errors in patients are among the leading causes of preventable health damage and harm worldwide. In the United States, these errors cause at least one death a day and damage approximately 1.3 million people annually. According to the World Health Organization, the global expenditure on medication-related errors is estimated to be U$ 42 billion per year. In Brazil, the rate of potential drug interactions varies between 28% and 63.6% in primary care patients. The prevalence of drug interactions has increased following an aging population, an increase in chronic conditions, combined use of different drugs and an increase in the amount of prescription drugs per patient. Methods: The data used for the present study were obtained through the database of Nexodata do Brasil S.A., which is a private health technology company that has an electronic prescription system and a data intelligence area. Results: 65,867 electronic prescriptions were evaluated during the year 2019, of these, 4,828 prescriptions had an average of 2.5 interactions. These interactive prescriptions were generated by 197 different doctors, totaling a total of 24.5 prescriptions with interaction per doctor over 12 months. A total of 12,005 interactions were identified, 15.6% of which were classified as mild, 70.9% as moderate and 13.5% as severe. Conclusion: Through the implementation of an electronic prescription tool, a reduction of 32.9% in the amount of prescriptions with drug interaction was observed.