If E-prescribing were truly to improve safety, it would have real time drug interaction warnings pop up before you tried to send a med. My Allscripts service really doesn't seem to have this, yet unfortunately the only meds in there are the ones which have been refilled/filled electronically. (Remember a large part of the push for e-prescribing and EHR's is safety, not efficiency)
The bottom line on improving quality in medicine is we need more time to do the tasks adequately. This extends from the private office to the hospital setting. Electronics will only help so much. It's much more sexy however to talk technology than good old bread and butter patient ratios and numbers seen per day etc. And I would wager in the screwed up world of health accounting it (computerization) looks cheaper than increasing reimbursements to hospitals and physcians.
I'm sorry if the post is a little off topic-I didn't want to start a new discussion.
