Edward Armstrong, a professor of pharmacy at the University of Arizona in Tucson, another proponent of electronic prescribing, said hospitals need not install a full-blown system at once. Formularies are the lists of drugs that managed-care companies buy wholesale and prescribe at a discount or at no additional fee to their patients. But formularies change often, and drugs may be dropped from the plan. Various retail pharmacies also have been using computerized prescribing systems, Cohen said. But their feedback has not always been positive.
Some systems produce excessive alerts warning pharmacists against drug interaction possibilities.
A study conducted by Cohen's institute found that some systems were unable to identify nearly a dozen potentially lethal drugs. We know what some of the problems are, and there are ways to work on them, Cohen said. We know computers aren't perfect, so as long we keep that in mind, we know not to expect absolute perfection. Produced by Newsday Electronic Publishing.