If you haven’t yet used electronic prescribing, there’s no reason to wait. E-prescribing software is available free through the National ePrescribing Patient Safety Initiative (NEPSI, at http://www.nationalerx.com/). It’s based on software offered commercially by Allscripts and it’s free. It’s basically an on-ramp to electronic health records – The tool lets users enter a patient’s current medications, problem list, and allergies (which it uses to automatically check for side effects and interactions;), write a prescription; and send it directly to a pharmacy. The pharmacist can use the system to return a message alerting the physician to allergies or other potential problems noted on the patient’s pharmacy record, or to let the physician know when the patient needs a refill.
