Will typed medication orders ever be standard in hospitals?

[newslang]

I am a prepharmacy student and work in a hospital as a technician. One thing that really scares me about being a hospital pharmacist is having to interpret doctors' handwriting quickly and accurately. It's one thing to know all the information you have to know to be a pharmacist, and another to constantly be ascertaining drug names when only about 50% of the letters are legible, from a fax no less.

So i ask: how common are typed medication orders in hospital pharmacies today, and is there a trend toward their greater use?

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[njac]

we have some typed preset order sets (DVT Prophylaxis)

sometimes admit orders will be typed.

but overall I don't think handwriting is as bad in the inpatient setting as it is outpatient - and I'm not sure why. But only once in a blue moon does something come up that is unreadable.

Also, we use Pyxis Connect and I swear it is easier to read the scans on the screen than something that is faxed over. On my rotation last summer they did faxes and I found them incredibly difficult to read in comparison.

CPOE worries me because it's just so easy to pick the wrong medication on a drop down menu...

 

[genesis09]

There is a movement towards e-prescribing. Many physicians are loathed to adopt it though. However, Medicare will force the issue in a couple of years.
At UIC hospital, all in-patient drug orders are e-prescribed. The prescriber types it in, and then it is colored coded to determined urgency. The pharmacist clicks on the order and verifies it. The computer system will then allow it to be filled.

 

[azPharmD2B]

At the hospital I volunteered at they had just started switching to e-prescribing and you'd have thought the apocalypse had begun with the way most doctors acted. Granted there were some bugs in the system, but hand written orders were still permitted during the transition. It was just the usual opposition to change. I think the goal was to be at 90%+ electronic within a year. Compounds or misc mixtures were about the only exceptions. I need to head back there to see if they gave up on the system, lol.

 

[firefighter9015]

we have some typed preset order sets (DVT Prophylaxis)

sometimes admit orders will be typed.

but overall I don't think handwriting is as bad in the inpatient setting as it is outpatient - and I'm not sure why. But only once in a blue moon does something come up that is unreadable.

Also, we use Pyxis Connect and I swear it is easier to read the scans on the screen than something that is faxed over. On my rotation last summer they did faxes and I found them incredibly difficult to read in comparison.

CPOE worries me because it's just so easy to pick the wrong medication on a drop down menu...

I agree about the scans. The hospital I worked for did it that way, and we are able to zoom in on sections that are hard to interpret and figure things out. You also get used to the docs handwriting at your institution and can learn to distinguish there letters.

 

[Aznfarmerboi]

Most of the hospitals that I have been to have either gone 100 percent online ordering or on their way to. From what I heard from a few administrators, it is not a matter of if, but when they will be forced to. Stuff like barcoding technology on patients will also soon be the standard of care definitely in our lifetime!

In terms of translating physcian's handwritten order, I wouldnt worry about it. Once you go through 4 years of pharamcy school, training, and familiarization with most of the drugs out there, you can make out most orders. It is like how that study goes where you can scramble all the letters you want, but as long as the first letter and last letter is in place, most people would still understand it. Soon you will be able to look at the drug name, the dosing, and how the hospital formulary works and figure out everything. Of course still, handwritten RX leads to more error no matter what.