Electronic prescribing delivering positive benefits to patients
National is committed to delivering better public health services, and New Zealand is taking the next step in rolling out electronic prescribing.
An electronic prescribing pilot was launched in Dunedin Hospital in 2010, and was so successful it is now being rolled out to all Southern District Health Board hospitals.
The scheme, piloted in Dunedin Hospital, allowed doctors to prescribe medication electronically from specially designed software. This eliminated the risk of most common errors, such as patient identification and illegible drug names.
The pilot saw a reduction in medicines errors of over 98 per cent.
The long term plan is to introduce the scheme into hospitals across the country. This will be the first time an electronic system will be introduced that will eventually be the same in all public hospitals in New Zealand.
More information: http://www.national.org.nz/Article.aspx?articleId=38682
