TY - JOUR
T1 - Economic impact of electronic prescribing in the hospital setting
T2 - A systematic review
AU - Ahmed, Zamzam
AU - Barber, Nick
AU - Jani, Yogini
AU - Garfield, Sara
AU - Franklin, Bryony Dean
N1 - Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.
PY - 2015/12
Y1 - 2015/12
N2 - OBJECTIVE: To examine evidence on the economic impact of electronic prescribing (EP) systems in the hospital setting.METHOD: We conducted a systematic search of MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, International Pharmaceutical Abstracts, the NHS Economic Evaluation Database, the European Network of Health Economic Evaluation Database and Web of Science from inception to October 2013. Full and partial economic evaluations of EP or computerized provider order entry were included. We excluded studies assessing prescribing packages for specific drugs, and monetary outcomes that were not related to medicines. A checklist was used to evaluate risk of bias and evidence quality.RESULTS: The search yielded 1160 articles of which three met the inclusion criteria. Two were full economic evaluations and one a partial economic evaluation. A meta-analysis was not appropriate as studies were heterogeneous in design, economic evaluation method, interventions and outcome measures. Two studies investigated the financial impact of reducing preventable adverse drug events. The third measured savings related to various aspects of the system including those related to medication. Two studies reported positive financial effects. However the overall quality of the economic evidence was low and key details often not reported.DISCUSSION: There seems to be some evidence of financial benefits of EP in the hospital setting. However, it is not clear if evidence is transferable to other settings. Research is scarce and limited in quality, and reported methods are not always transparent. Further robust, high quality research is required to establish if hospital EP is cost effective and thus inform policy makers' decisions.
AB - OBJECTIVE: To examine evidence on the economic impact of electronic prescribing (EP) systems in the hospital setting.METHOD: We conducted a systematic search of MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, International Pharmaceutical Abstracts, the NHS Economic Evaluation Database, the European Network of Health Economic Evaluation Database and Web of Science from inception to October 2013. Full and partial economic evaluations of EP or computerized provider order entry were included. We excluded studies assessing prescribing packages for specific drugs, and monetary outcomes that were not related to medicines. A checklist was used to evaluate risk of bias and evidence quality.RESULTS: The search yielded 1160 articles of which three met the inclusion criteria. Two were full economic evaluations and one a partial economic evaluation. A meta-analysis was not appropriate as studies were heterogeneous in design, economic evaluation method, interventions and outcome measures. Two studies investigated the financial impact of reducing preventable adverse drug events. The third measured savings related to various aspects of the system including those related to medication. Two studies reported positive financial effects. However the overall quality of the economic evidence was low and key details often not reported.DISCUSSION: There seems to be some evidence of financial benefits of EP in the hospital setting. However, it is not clear if evidence is transferable to other settings. Research is scarce and limited in quality, and reported methods are not always transparent. Further robust, high quality research is required to establish if hospital EP is cost effective and thus inform policy makers' decisions.
KW - Cost-Benefit Analysis
KW - Economics, Hospital
KW - Electronic Prescribing/economics
KW - Humans
KW - Outcome Assessment (Health Care)
U2 - 10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2015.11.008
DO - 10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2015.11.008
M3 - Review article
C2 - 26878756
SN - 1868-1743
VL - 88
SP - 1
EP - 7
JO - Molecular informatics
JF - Molecular informatics
ER -