Swedish pharmacists value ePrescribing: a survey of a nationwide implementation

Objective To evaluate Swedish pharmacists' attitudes towards ePrescribing, including the transfer of ePrescriptions, electronic storing of prescriptions and mail-order prescriptions. Method This study was conducted as a web-based survey among 500 randomly selected Swedish community pharmacists. The questionnaire included open-ended questions, multiple-choice questions and statements to which respondents gave their degree of agreement on a six-point Likert-type rating scale. Free-text answers were categorized into the most commonly mentioned opinions. Differences in respondents' general characteristics and their level of satisfaction with ePrescribing were tested for significance using chi(2) test. The survey had a response rate of 52% (259/500). 96% (248/259) of the respondents were female, and 76% (196/259) were aged 40-64 years. Key findings Swedish community pharmacists were generally satisfied with ePrescribing (98%, 253/259). No significant (P > 0.05) difference in the general satisfaction could be explained by the respondents' age, gender or years in practice. A majority of the respondents regarded ePrescriptions and electronic storing of prescriptions as being safe for patients (95 and 93% respectively), providing patient benefits (96 and 95% respectively), being cost-effective for the pharmacy (92 and 91% respectively) and contributing to better communication and relationships with both patients and prescribers (62-88%). The positive aspects of ePrescribing most frequently mentioned in free-text answers were being safe (72%, 187/259) and timesaving (55%, 143/259). However, several weaknesses with ePrescribing were also described by the respondents, as well as suggestions for improvement. Conclusion Our nationwide survey of Swedish community pharmacists' attitudes towards ePrescribing shows that pharmacists are generally satisfied with it, including the transfer of ePrescriptions, electronic storing of prescriptions and to a lower degree mailorder prescriptions.