Abstract
With the recent Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services and stimulus package incentives for health information technology, many clinicians are expected to adopt or enhance their use of e-prescribing systems. E-prescribing has nearly eradicated medication errors resulting from prescriber handwriting interpretations, yet several other patient-care and workflow benefits still remain a promise. As prescribers select or update their e-prescribing systems (whether stand-alone or integrated with electronic health records), close attention is needed to the e-prescribing application features and level of clinical decision support to avoid clinical blind spots, including incomplete or inaccurate patient medication lists, poor drop-down menu or screen design, and lack of clinically relevant and actionable drug interaction and drug allergy alerts. This article presents three case studies that highlight common e-prescribing problems involving diabetes patients.