Information Technology Adoption to Make Care Safer:

Prescribing Medications by Computer

What are we measuring and why?

We measure the percentage of drugs that our doctors prescribe using the electronic  health record (EHR). Electronic-prescribing (e-prescribing) can help avoid drug allergies and harmful drug interactions. E-prescribing can also help a doctor know which drugs are covered by your insurance and when lower cost drugs are available. With e-prescribing, there is no handwriting to decipher, cutting down on errors. The use of e-prescribing lets a patient know that his or her doctor is committed to enhancing the quality, safety, and efficiency of care.

How are we doing and how do we compare to best practice?

Doctors at Partners HealthCare are national leaders in the use of e-prescribing. Our goal is to use e-prescribing in virtually all encounters. We are making progress towards that goal.

What are we doing to improve?

Because EHRs provide clear benefits to both patients and doctors, Partners HealthCare required all primary care physicians to adopt EHRs by the end of 2008 and all specialists by the end of 2009.

Charts for Prescribing Medications by Computer

  • Current Scores
  • Scores Over Time

Percent of Prescriptions Written by Computer
Higher values are better


91% 92% 93% 92% 90%

Partners HealthCare Data Period: April - June 2012

No comparable national or local benchmarks exist, and no Partners-wide goal is generalizable from hospital results. Starting in December 31, 2008, we changed the way we measure e-prescribing rates for our physicians. First, we are counting prescriptions written using on our most prevalent electronic system only. Second, we have moved from a sampling methodology to counting all new prescriptions written in this period.

Partners HealthCare Source: Partners HealthCare High Performance Medicine

Percent of Prescriptions Written by Computer
Higher values are better


92% 92% 91% 92% 90% 90% 89% 90% 92% 93% 91% 91% 92% 91% 90% 92% 92% 92% 92% 92%

No comparable national or local benchmarks exist, and no Partners-wide goal is generalizable from hospital results. Starting in December 31, 2008, we changed the way we measure e-prescribing rates for our physicians. First, we are counting prescriptions written using on our most prevalent electronic system only. Second, we have moved from a sampling methodology to counting all new prescriptions written in this period.

Partners HealthCare Source: Partners HealthCare High Performance Medicine