Accelerating the Adoption of Electronic Prescribing

Electronic prescribing, or e-prescribing, is computer-based electronic generation and transmission of a prescription. It improves patient safety and quality of care, increases prescribing accuracy and efficiency and reduces healthcare costs by making critical information available to healthcare providers. Implementing strategies to promote e-prescribing will move states toward a higher quality, more efficient health care system. E-prescribing also can serve as an important step in the movement toward fully integrated electronic health records (EHRs) and the electronic exchange of health information.