Before electronic prescribing can make an impact on care delivery in the U.S., work needs to be done to make systems interoperable and prescribing physicians need incentives to encourage adoption.

But implemented correctly, e-prescribing systems have the potential to improve patient safety and care quality, and can provide a stepping stone to an interoperable electronic healthcare system, according to report released yesterday.

The report, "Electronic Prescribing: Towards Maximum Value and Rapid Adoption," was produced by the eHealth Initiative, a Washington-based organization promoting the use of information technology in healthcare.

The report pulls together the advice of more than 70 electronic prescribing experts, said Jonathan Teich, MD, chair of the organization's Electronic Prescribing Initiative. Teich is Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer, HealthVision; Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard University and physician in the Department of Emergency Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital.

Among the report's findings:

* Incentives are critical to achieving widespread adoption and should be used to encourage the adoption and use of electronic prescribing.

* Systems need to be better designed and more usable and should incorporate clinical decision support for maximum acceptability and impact.

* Software should provide information on choices of medication and pharmacies, but not lock physicians or patients into certain choices.

* Standards and vocabularies need to be enhanced to improve quality, efficiency and to facilitate interoperability between the various systems involved in the electronic prescribing process.

* Integrating electronic prescribing within the EHR will provide additional value.

Electronic copies of the report are available at http://www.ehealthinitiative.org/initiatives/erx/.