That s forty percent of all prescriptions that take the doctor s and the pharmacist s time in clarifying things. In addition, prescriptions are the third-leading cause of malpractice. Now, that is an example. When you look at that, it took a group of very smart entrepreneurs to figure out that doctors walk around all day. The reason they don t use the PC on their desk is that they are not at their desks.
Pharmacists benefit because they don t have to spend a lot of time calling back to clarify things.
And in fact, one major drug store is considering subsidizing this process for the doctors that work with the drug store. They figure that they would more than repay the cost of the Palm Pilot or the Casio just in the first months of reduced telephone calls. That brings up another issue. There are many on-line sites that give consumers the ability to order prescriptions on their own. I think that s actually a very large public policy debate.