A recent study of the effectiveness of computerized electronic prescribing, intended to help reduce medication errors, found that using computers for writing prescriptions made no difference in the error rate when filling the prescriptions in pharmacies. However, when the error rate was compared in intensive care units (ICUs), the error rate had increased by a shocking 600 percent.

The study was conducted in two intensive care units – one was a standard ICU and the other specialized in cardiac care.

One of the major errors made was the same medication being prescribed twice. The number of identical medication errors jumped from .36 in 100 patient days to 1.72 in 100 patient days, and the number of same-medication errors went from 0.31 in 100 patient days to 1.87. These represent an approximate 600 percent increase in this type of error.

How does this happen? Here are some examples:

• Two different doctors go on rounds – checking up on the patients under their care – and they see some of the same patients. Their visits might be only 10 minutes apart. Both prescribe the same drug during the visit. So, the order goes in twice, and the patient gets the medication twice unless someone else notices the discrepancy.

• During a shift change, the doctor leaving prescribes a drug for a patient and the doctor coming on doesn’t know about the earlier prescription and prescribes the same drug.

A whopping 43 percent of the duplicate orders were prescribed within an hour of each other by two different physicians.

Even more amazing, 7 percent of the duplicate orders were prescribed by the same physician, even though the e-prescribing software system they were using gives out a warning alert when a second order for the same medication is entered. To have prescribed the drug twice, the doctor would have had to override the system – ignoring the warning.

Another contributing factor is that the system does not recognize oral and intravenous forms of a drug as the same drug. Another duplication.

Unfortunately, e-prescribing is really catching on: In 2009, 190 million prescriptions were written with e-systems. In 2010, the number jumped to 326 million. As e-prescribing continues to increase, so will the number of patients adversely effected.

Medication errors, wrong site surgeries, antibiotic-resistant bacteria – it all adds up to time spent in the hospital being a lot more stressful and dangerous than your condition dictates.

What is the solution? If you must go to the hospital, take an advocate with you: a friend or family member who understands what could go wrong, watches like a hawk, asks how ever many questions they need to without being intimidated, and speaks up in no uncertain terms when things don’t seem right.

That advocate may save your life.

Sources: Information Week, http://www.informationweek.com/news/healthcare/CPOE/231400123, http://www.informationweek.com/news/healthcare/CPOE/231001032, http://www.informationweek.com/news/healthcare/EMR/229500773.