US PCMA backs e-prescribing moves

As US policymakers continue to seek common ground promoting bipartisan health care issues that improve safety and save money, Representatives Allyson Schwartz and Jason Altmire (both Democrat, Pennsylvania) and Lois Capps, (Democrat, California), have launched the New Democratic Health Care Task Force, which will focus on passing electronic prescribing legislation - a move applauded by the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association - among other heath care initiatives.

E-prescribing improves safety by alerting a doctor when a drug about to be prescribed could dangerously interact with other medications that a patient is already taking. It also eliminates medication errors that result from sloppy handwritten prescriptions that are illegible at the pharmacy counter, says the PCMA.