The Impact of Electronic Prescribing on the Professionalization of Community Pharmacists: A Qualitative Study of Pharmacists' Perception.

The role of the pharmacist has changed a lot. Many years ago he/she used to play a part from the preparation until the sale of the medication. Now pharmacists are also concerned with helping patients stay healthy. The use of computer based electronic prescribing system may help. Doctors will use a computer instead of paper to write the prescriptions. The pharmacist will receive the prescription electronically and will serve the patient. This prescription will also tell the pharmacist why the prescription is been written. This may have a big benefit.
An example is a patient with more than one disease who has more than one doctor. One doctor prescribes him/her electronically a few medications. Not only the pharmacist but also the others doctors will receive the prescription. All the team will have access to clinical and treatment information. They could work together in order to improve the patients health.
What pharmacists think about this type of electronic prescribing is not well known. A study was conducted to find out. A few pharmacists using the new technology were asked about their experiences with it. In general pharmacists had a good opinion about electronic prescribing. They think it may be a way to work as a team with physicians. It could give them the chance to work more closely with the patient. This new technology may boost their efforts to provide better services.