In a nod to the digital era, electronic prescriptions (e-scripting) at Netcare hospitals is making traditional handwritten prescriptions obsolete, and reducing the risks of errors from illegibility, while allowing integration with other technological systems.
“The additional medication safety and convenience of e-scripting minimises the potential for human error in interpreting handwritten prescriptions or delays with physically moving paper scripts to wherever they are needed around the hospital,” said Vishala Gokool-Sewram, the group’s general manager of pharmacy.
The pioneering process was first verified by the South African Pharmacy Council in 2020 and, by May 2021, e-scripting was up and running in five Netcare hospitals. To date more than 1m e-scripts have been issued using the system, which has now been implemented at 26 hospitals across South Africa as part of the group’s adoption of an electronic medical records system.
E-scripting technology
Angeliki Messina, Netcare’s head of clinical pharmacy digitisation, said the move to electronic medical records has allowed for further integration with other digital systems. “The process is a first of its kind at this scale in South Africa, which has revolutionised pharmacy practice at our hospitals,” she said.
The process complies with national regulations for e-scripting, and includes an advanced electronic signature, which involves an accreditation process to ensure validity of, and security for, prescribers.
The use of electronic medical records has also enabled the development of a fully integrated pharmacy module for additional patient safety measures regarding medication within Netcare facilities, including automated checks for adverse interaction with disease conditions or other medication.
“Taking this technology a step further, we can now make discharge prescriptions available to patients online via the My Netcare Online portal. E-scripting therefore makes discharge prescriptions easily accessible for patients to share with other external healthcare providers, as needed,” she said.
Digitisation enhances patient safety
Medication safety lead Nirasha Singh said the organisation’s medication safety programme, established to prevent errors, is aligned to the World Health Organisation’s global patient safety challenge of ‘Medication without harm’.
With multiple automated safety checks, the digital system assists healthcare professionals to make sure it is the correct medicine at the correct dosage, throughout the prescription process. The system puts patient safety with regard to medication at its core, added Singh.
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