Dr. Thomas Fromuth used to wield a pen and a prescription pad in his office.

The obstetrician/gynecologist now uses a hand-held computer to prescribe medications for his patients.

He's electronically prescribing, or e-prescribing, transmitting a prescription directly from his computer to a pharmacy's computer.

E-prescribing is becoming a trend in local doctors' offices here and across the country, in a push to reduce medication errors and save health care dollars.

"It streamlines my process for prescribing," Fromuth says. "It will allow me to be more safe and to constantly review the process and make it better."

OBGYN of Lancaster's 11 physicians, who write at least 20,000 prescriptions a year, started e-prescribing last week. The Heart Group, a local cardiology group, has been doing all of its prescriptions electronically since January.

Two large groups of physician practices here, the Lancaster General Medical Group and Physicians' Alliance Ltd. (PAL), are in the process of adopting e-prescribing.

There is a good reason for the push.

Medication errors injure at least 1.5 million people a year in the United States, according to the Institute of Medicine, created as a medical advisory group by the federal government.

Those mistakes can be costly. One study found that medication errors in Medicare patients cost $887 million in treatment costs annually, according to the Institute.

President Barack Obama has made e-prescribing part of his plan to improve health care, including funding for it in the $50 billion he has pledged to spend to develop health information technology.

Starting Jan. 1, the federal government began offering a carrot for e-prescribing, giving bonuses to doctors who use the technology. Eventually, it will wield a stick, penalizing doctors who don't e-prescribe by 2012.

Local doctors are getting onboard.

"We started to see the trend about a year ago," says Steve Wiley, owner of Wiley's Pharmacies.

About 65 percent of doctor's offices locally are prescribing this way at Wiley's. More than half of the prescriptions now come in electronically at Williams Apothecary, pharmacist Mike Curran says.

After sending the prescription to the pharmacy, doctors give patients a receipt of the transmission, so they can pick up the medicine.

Then, physicians get a confirmation of the pick-up from the pharmacy, so they know patients are following through with their care.

E-prescribing improves the method of handwritten prescriptions in several ways, says Dennis Hertz, administrator of OBGYN:

• It avoids mistakes due to bad handwriting and the double-checking pharmacies have to do to decipher the writing.

• It can alert a doctor if a drug that is being prescribed might interact with another medication the patient already is taking.

• It helps to reduce errors that can happen when drugs have names that look or sound alike.

• It helps to provide clear directions to patients about how and when to take a medication.

• It informs a doctor what drugs a particular insurance covers, so doctors know the least expensive alternatives for patients.

About 80 percent of the 120 physicians and medical providers in PAL are e-prescribing, says Lee Meyers, chief executive officer of the consortium of 30 local physician practices. The rest will be online by this summer.

The group includes Oyster Point Family Practice, General Internal Medicine, Manor Family Health and others.

"The biggest gains are accuracy in prescribing," Meyers says.

 Doctors, he says, "love the idea. The concept is a great one — it's quicker, more efficient."

About 40 percent of the physicians and medical providers in the Lancaster General Medical Group and Lancaster General system are e-prescribing, and that number will grow over the summer. This group includes Family Practice Associates of Lancaster, Roseville Pediatrics, Norlanco Medical Associates and others.

"I'd say its groundbreaking," says Dr. Mike Ripchinski, a family physician at Lancaster General's Walter Aument Family Health Center in Quarryville, who also works with physician information technology.

"You're eliminating the illegibility, decreasing your risk of medication errors and getting warning and alert systems," he says.

"It's definitely going to improve care for the patients."


Staff writer Cindy Stauffer can be reached at cstauffer@LNPnews.com or 481-6024.