HIQA publishes recommendations for community-based ePrescribing

Date of publication:

HIQA has published recommendations for an ePrescribing programme in a community setting. The recommendations are based on factors that have been found to support the success of national, community-based ePrescribing programmes internationally. HIQA’s ePrescribing: an International Review is published as a companion to these Recommendations and is available at www.hiqa.ie.
HIQA’s Director of Health Information and Standards, Rachel Flynn, said: “A national, community-based ePrescribing programme can deliver significant benefits for patients, prescribers and pharmacists. It can improve patient safety considerably by reducing cases of mistaken identity, incorrect dosage, incorrect medication and adverse drug interactions. ePrescribing can also save money and time compared to processing the same prescriptions manually.”  

The National ePrescribing Programme was announced at the first eHealth Ireland summit in June 2015. The SlainteCare Implementation Strategy prioritises the implementation of community-based ePrescribing to support information sharing, patient empowerment and the development of digital services.  
Ms Flynn continued: “The recommendations published today are centred on strong health service governance, leadership, accountability. The implementation of these recommendations will help support the successful development of community-based ePrescribing in Ireland.”

ENDS

For further information contact:

Marty Whelan, Head of Communications and Stakeholder Engagement, HIQA,
01 814 7480 / 086 2447 623, mwhelan@hiqa.ie

Notes to the editor:

  • ePrescribing involves the generation of the prescription by GPs, the transmission of prescriptions electronically from GP to pharmacy over national networks and a pharmacist dispensing the prescription.
  • ePrescribing is used to describe all aspects of the generation and transfer of prescriptions electronically using a dedicated system, whether in paper or electronic form, rather than faxing or emailing the prescription.
  • Recommendations for the national, community-based ePrescribing programme in Ireland can be found at www.hiqa.ie.
  •  Recommendations were developed in conjunction with a specific ePrescribing Advisory Group convened for the purpose of the project.
  •   Recommendations were developed in accordance with the Recommendations Development process.
  •  A public consultation was undertaken between June and August 2018. 29 submission were received during the public consultation.
  •   Recommendations are made in each of the following six areas:
    •  scope and legislative requirements
    • governance
    • data privacy
    • stakeholder engagement and communication strategy
    • standards-based approach
    • implementation.
  • The companion document to this, ePrescribing: an International Review, can be found at http://bit.ly/ePrescribingReview.