Apr 8, 2016

Prevent Prescribing Deadly Medications

April 8, 2016 by Alanna Diffendal  |  Updated December 15

RXNT Logo and name displayed on a building outside

Dr. Leana S. Wen, Health Commissioner for the city of Baltimore, used her personal experience to emphasize the fact that doctors can unknowingly prescribe lethal combinations of drugs without realizing the effects in her article

The Accidental Deadly Drug Prescriptions. According to the National Vital Statistics System in 2010, one in three unintentional overdose deaths in the U.S. were from a combination of prescription opioids and benzodiazepines. Since then, in Maryland alone, 70% of deaths associated with benzodiazepines also involved prescription opioids. The frightening reality is that doctors continue to prescribe patients the two medications without knowing the fatal effects. Why continue to allow doctors to unknowingly prescribe fatal concoctions of medications when a solution already exists?

It is reasons such as these that the Healthcare Industry has recommended replacing traditional hand written documentation with electronic systems. These electronic health records(EHR) and electronic prescribing(eRx) systems are paving the way to eliminate the risk of prescribing medications that can cause severe damage, and in some cases death. If all doctors and prescribing physicians had access to electronic prescribing, they would be able to see what medications the patient has previously been prescribed as well as what they are currently taking in a matter of seconds. Not only does this eliminate doctors prescribing counteracting drugs but also automatically logs prescription history.

Interoperability is a hot topic in the healthcare industry to mainstream communication of patient documents within different software systems. The idea behind this is if a patient visits a doctor’s office in Maryland then travels to California for vacation and gets injured, the California doctor will know the medications that were prescribed by the doctor in Maryland. Overall, electronic systems vendors are on path to decrease patient deaths due to unknowingly prescribing lethal medications for those who utilize a solution, like RXNT.  

RXNT offers an electronic prescribing solution with robust features that help eliminate issues surrounding handwritten prescriptions and patient medication history. RXNT|eRx solution allows physicians to prescribe their patients medications, see drug-to-drug and drug-to-allergy interactions, and up to two years of patient medication history. RXNT|eRx fully integrates with RXNT|EHR and RXNT|PM solutions to provide physicians with a full suite of products for their practice. To remain ahead of the curve, contact [email protected] or call 1-800-943-7968 Option 3 to learn the benefits of e-Prescribing.

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