Evaluation of electronic prescriptions in Turkey: A community pharmacy perspective

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the opinions of pharmacists, who are important users of e-prescribing practices in Turkey, on the function of a prescription application. Method: A questionnaire was developed to determine the opinions of pharmacists on Turkish e prescribing practices, using a stratified and systematic random sampling method. A total of 378 pharmacists responded to the questionnaire. Results: The average level of satisfaction of e-prescription reported by pharmacists was 4.4 +/- 0.8. Although 52.4% of the participating pharmacists reported no problems using the e-prescription application, 47.6% reported encountering problems. The majority of the problems associated with e-prescription practices were caused by the physicians who entered the e-prescription into the system. The most common problem (17.4%) reported was the inability to read the e-prescription code as written by physicians. The primary contribution of the e-prescribing practice reported by pharmacists was the acceleration of prescription procedures. Conclusion: E-prescription practice is advantageous to pharmacies across many aspects, improving drug delivery to patients, and most pharmacists reported thatthe e-prescription practice washighly satisfying. The development of electronic and information technologies increases access toinformation resources and diversity, resulting inchanges in the expectations and utilisation levels of users; therefore, continuous improvements are required to improve the performance of the e-prescribing system. (c) 2020 Fellowship of Postgraduate Medicine. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.