E-prescribing: clinical implications for patients with diabetes.

With the recent Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services and stimulus package incentives for health information technology, many clinicians are expected to adopt or enhance their use of e-prescribing systems. E-prescribing has nearly eradicated medication errors resulting from prescriber handwriting interpretations, yet several other patient-care and workflow benefits still remain a promise. As prescribers select or update their e-prescribing systems (whether stand-alone or integrated with electronic health records), close attention is needed to the e-prescribing application features and level of clinical decision support to avoid clinical blind spots, including incomplete or inaccurate patient medication lists, poor drop-down menu or screen design, and lack of clinically relevant and actionable drug interaction and drug allergy alerts. This article presents three case studies that highlight common e-prescribing problems involving diabetes patients. 2009 Diabetes Technology Society.