Medication Reconciliation and E-Prescribing

E-prescribing is a certification requirement for out-patient clinics and urgent care facilities for EHRs to obtain "meaningful use" monies from the government. E-prescribing is desirable for patients, but its real objective is medication reconciliation.

This process is intended to be convenient for the patient; however, there is also an underlying goal to achieve medication reconciliation. The goal of medication reconciliation is important, but it is also time-consuming and labor intensive.

The problems associated with e-prescribing are:

• Who is going the input the info?
• Who is going to keep it updated?
• What is the time frame?
• Accuracy depends on patient and data collection

E-prescribing can only be accomplished if medication reconciliation is performed by the E-prescriber and his/her software. This puts the burden on provider and his/her staff.