331 e-Prescribing Alerts to Prevent 1 Adverse Drug Event

In this study, physicians overrode 91% of the medication alerts.  This same problem occurs with pharmacy computer systems.  The article provides some ideas for improving these results such as carefully selecting the alerts most likely to result in meaningful improvements.  However, this highlights why we should not rely on e-prescribing systems alone to minimize the risk of medication related problems.  Not only do these systems have limited effectiveness they also do not reduce the risks that occur once the patient has the prescription, particularly non-adherence.