Electronic Health Records, Electronic Prescribing and Medication Errors: An Appraisal and Update of Relevant Literature, 2000-2020

This article synthesizes the international literature on EHRs, e-prescribing (eP) and MEs and provides
a platform to World Health Organization Eastern Mediterranean Region (WHO-EMR) countries for
implementing EHRs and eP in healthcare system. Computer searches of PubMed, MEDLINE,
Quertle®, Google Scholar, Web Knowledge and International Pharmacy Abstract databases were
conducted for the years 2000–2020 using several single- and combined-keyword strategies, with 184
articles retained for evaluation. Although e-prescribing integrated with EHR reduces medication errors
at all healthcare levels, decreases morbidity and mortality, enhances patient and healthcare provider
satisfaction by reducing costs and improving quality of life, it produces different types of medication
errors at various stages of the prescription process. An EHR with eP that has a clinical decision
support system (CDSS), dose-limit range, drug–drug interaction alert protocols, and formulary
decision support helps to improve eP and ensures greater patient safety and other multiple
applications. Evidently there is limited data in these countries and hence further studies are needed to
assess impact of EHRs and EP system (EPSs) on medication errors, quality of healthcare, patient
safety and outcome, morbidity and mortality rates, patients’ and healthcare providers’ acceptance,
and especially its cost-effectiveness.