No component of the EHR has received more attention over the last few years than e-prescribing. The attention is coming from government, private industry, insurers, and specialty organizations, and is closely linked to the broader medication safety initiatives. The Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act (MIPPA) was enacted in July 2008; state initiatives align with national trends in the promotion of e-prescribing technology; private industry, health plans, and industry organizations are coming together in unique alliances to promote the acceptance and utilization of e-prescribing technology; a number of medical and surgical specialty organizations have made a commitment to the growing e-prescribing movement.

Two factors contributing to the success of such efforts are the technical characteristics of these solutions and the practical workflow benefits that e-prescribing technology delivers. In general, these solutions are easy to install, maintain, and use. The implementations are efficient from a time and resource standpoint and do not, as a rule, disrupt the normal physician workflow. On the contrary, e-prescribing data and workflow enhancements address a set of readily identifiable pain points common to almost every practice. These pain points include frequent medication-related phone calls either from patients or pharmacies, excessive chart pulls, lack of satisfactory medication history data, incomplete allergy and drug interaction data, and cumbersome formulary data access and management. By addressing these pain points with one user-friendly, relatively inexpensive solution, the chances for more widespread adoption and subsequent ongoing use are greatly enhanced. As a result, the healthcare system should see broad adoption by physicians across the practice spectrum.