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ePrescriptions to become mandatory for all insured patients by end of 2014

All healthcare providers and insurance companies in Dubai were granted a year of voluntary use last year to allow healthcare professionals to adapt to the new system.

The Dubai Health Authority (DHA) will soon transition from handwritten paper prescriptions to electronic prescriptions for patients who are insured.

An awareness campaign was started on Monday with DHA meeting healthcare providers in Dubai to brief them on the ePrescription initiative.

The initiative was announced in January 2013 as part of implementing the Dubai Health Insurance Law of 2013. All healthcare providers and insurance companies in Dubai were granted a year of voluntary use to allow healthcare professionals to adapt to the new system.

In January 2014, the initiative began to be implemented phasewise. Presently, most hospitals and all insurance companies are following this system, with polyclinics, pharmacies and medical centres being phased into the plan. “The aim of this campaign is to reach out to these healthcare providers and educate them about the benefits of using ePrescriptions. Eventually, all healthcare providers will have to be on board as ePresciptions is an important criterion of the Health Insurance Law of 2013,” said Haider Al Yousef, director of health funding.

He said other benefits from ePrescription are improved patient safety and overall quality of care. It reduces the number of trips to the pharmacy and long waits. Also, warning and alert systems are provided at the point of prescribing. Access to a patient’s medical history at the time of prescribing can prevent recommending inappropriate drugs.

The e-Prescription decreasing the risk of errors rising from illegible handwritten prescriptions. Physicians often receive an unnecessary number of phone calls from pharmacies with questions, clarifications and refill requests. These calls interrupt office flow and waste time for care providers and patients. It also allows live communication between healthcare providers and insurance companies when needed.

All prescribing information is fed through the Dubai Health Post Office to insurance companies. So when pharmacies forward an ePrescription to insurance companies, they get an immediate response. Currently, insurance companies respond to over 70 per cent of ePrescriptions in less than a minute.

The DHA plans to fully eliminate paper prescriptions for 
insured patients by the end of this year.

asmaalizain@khaleejtimes.com