Electronic prescribing in NHS hospitals patchy at best

Patchy use of electronic prescribing in NHS hospitals - and the huge diversity of systems - creates huge challenges for both patient safety and staff training, according to a new study published today in the journal PLOS ONE . Of 101 hospitals in England that took part in a survey about their current use of electronic prescribing, just one has a system that is used in all clinical areas (including outpatients) with a further 12 hospitals using electronic prescribing in all adult medical and surgical wards. Overall, 69% of the 101 hospitals in the study had some form of electronic prescribing in place. However, there is wide variation in the systems used - in many hospitals electronic prescribing is only in place in certain clinical areas or for limited prescribing. For the first time, the authors of the study were also able to describe the use of multiple electronic prescribing systems within individual hospitals. For example, a number of hospitals had a system for prescribing inpatient medication plus separate systems for prescribing medication to take home and/or for cancer chemotherapy. The level of variation in the use of electronic prescribing between hospital departments, and the diversity of the systems in place, presents a potential threat to patient safety in the form of medication errors.