VIJAYAWADA: State government is planning to implement the usage of e-prescriptions at all government and private hospitals. The move is aimed to reduce paper wastage and lower the margin of error with hand-written prescriptions.
Even the TDP government had planned for a similar initiative and make e-prescriptions accessible on phones. Now, this decision is again on the cards as the government wants the health industry to go paperless. A senior official of the health department said that the move would not only transform the medical industry but also aid in preventing malpractice. “We are also planning a smartphone app-based prescription service to further cut down the costs,” he said.
While e-prescriptions may be environment-friendly, they may create a financial burden on the State as the government would have to equip hospitals with computers.
To make the initiative a success, doctors would have to use computers or tablets to write prescriptions and then e-mail it to the patients. Also, the pharmacy or the pathology labs, who are opposing the move, would also need computers and staff to access the digital prescriptions.
IMA’s national member Dr P Gangadhar said: “This is in fact a herculean task and requires hospitals to restructure their working procedure. A patient’s ID would now play a key role and their Aadhaar car would need to be linked with prescriptions. This will help in reducing communication gap between pharmacists and doctors.”