ePrescription: road map from wired to wireless point-of-care order entry

Over one hundred thousands of drug prescriptions are generated each year in New Zealand alone. Higher population density country such as UK generates over 600 millions of prescriptions each year. Electronic prescription is considered as a cost effective tool to help reduce medication errors, improve quality of care and streamlining healthcare processes. This paper reports on a pilot effort to develop and test an electronic prescription application. It also identified a number of key issues to be addressed urgently if electronic prescription is to be accepted widely and greater benefits to be achieved.