National Standard on community-based e-prescribing will drive benefits for patients — HIQA

This National Standard defines the information requirements for the implementation of community-based e-prescribing and dispensing in Ireland.

Information requirements are a minimum set of data items that are recommended for implementation in information systems that create and transfer information to support the delivery of safe and quality care to patients. The inclusion of data in the minimum set of data is determined by its clinical relevancy and the potential for the data to improve patient safety in a collaborative care environment.

HIQA’s Director of Health Information and Standards,  Ms Rachel Flynn, said: “A national, community-based ePrescribing programme can deliver significant benefits for patients, prescribers and pharmacists. It can improve patient safety considerably by reducing cases of incorrect dosage, incorrect medication and adverse drug interactions.”

The Sláintecare Implementation Strategy published in August 2018 prioritises the implementation of community-based e-prescribing to support information sharing, patient empowerment and the development of digital services.

Ms Flynn continued: “A national e-prescribing service can also benefit prescribers by enabling the safe electronic sharing of prescription information. Prescribers can receive notifications when a patient collects a prescription from a pharmacy. Electronic prescribing can improve the efficiency of process within pharmacies thus allowing pharmacists give to more time with patients.”

“The National Standard published today is a key building block in the development of e-prescribing in Ireland and will ultimately help improve patient safety.”