HIQA has launched a public consultation on draft recommendations for an ePrescribing programme in a community setting. This six-week consultation aims to elicit views on the future development of ePrescribing in Ireland.

The draft recommendations are based on factors that have been found to support the success of national, community-based ePrescribing programmes internationally. HIQA’s ePrescribing: an International Review is published as a companion to this Draft for Consultation document and is available at www.hiqa.ie.

HIQA’s Director of Health Information and Standards, Rachel Flynn, said: “A national, community-based ePrescribing programme can deliver significant benefits for patients, prescribers and pharmacists. It can improve patient safety considerably by reducing cases of mistaken identity, incorrect dosage, incorrect medication and adverse drug interactions. ePrescribing can also save money and time compared to processing the same prescriptions manually.”

The National ePrescribing Programme was announced at the first eHealth Ireland summit in June 2015. The recommendations published today will help drive the process forward.

Ms Flynn continued: “HIQA is committed to stakeholder consultation and values all feedback provided to support the development of these ePrescribing recommendations. The consultation process will take place over a six-week period. In this way, the public, service users and service providers will have the opportunity to provide feedback and become involved in the future of ePrescribing in Ireland.”

The closing date for receipt of comments is 5pm on Friday, 3 August 2018.

ENDS

For further information contact:

Marty Whelan, Head of Communications and Stakeholder Engagement, HIQA, 01 814 7480 / 086 2447 623, mwhelan@hiqa.ie

Notes to the editor:

• ePrescribing is used to describe all aspects of the generation and transfer of prescriptions electronically using a dedicated system, whether in paper or electronic form, rather than faxing or emailing the prescription.
• Draft recommendations for the national, community-based ePrescribing programme in Ireland can be found at the link below
• Recommendations are made in each of the following six areas:
  
  • scope and legislative requirements
  • governance
  • data privacy
  • stakeholder engagement and communication strategy
  • standards-based approach
  • implementation.
• The companion document to this, ePrescribing: an International Review, can be found at http://bit.ly/ePrescribingReview
• There are several ways to tell us what you think:
  
  • Your comments can be submitted by downloading and completing the consultation feedback form, link available below and e-mailing your completed forms to technicalstandards@hiqa.ie.  
  • Alternatively, you can print off a copy of the feedback form from our website and post it to us at: Technical Standards, Health Information and Quality Authority, eHealth Consultation, George’s Court, George’s Lane, Smithfield, Dublin 7.