Kosten durch Medikationsfehler und Doppelverordnungen infolge unzureichender elektronischer Verschreibungsprozesse

Definition

Government and professional bodies emphasise that electronic prescribing is part of a broader digital health and medicines safety framework and that it improves patient safety by reducing transcription errors.[1][2][4][5][6] Some regions recommend or provide real‑time prescription monitoring (RTPM) solutions such as SafeScript NSW to identify risks like doctor‑shopping and dangerous combinations, with these systems intended to run in the background and alert prescribers to concerns when prescribing electronically.[3] LOGIC: Where e‑prescribing is implemented without consistent ASL enrolment or RTPM integration, prescribers in mental health may inadvertently duplicate benzodiazepine or opioid scripts or miss interactions with other psychotropics, resulting in adverse events or conservative recall of patients for review. Each such incident can drive one or more unplanned consultations (e.g. 20–40 minutes of psychiatrist time), follow‑up phone calls, and, in severe cases, legal or insurance involvement. Assuming only 1–2 preventable medication‑related incidents per month per busy clinic, at an effective clinician cost of $200–$400 per incident (time plus overhead) and occasional larger medico‑legal costs, a medium‑sized mental health service could see $2,400–$9,600 per year in quality‑related costs that robust electronic medication management and decision support could avoid.

Why This Matters

The Pitch: Mental health services in Australia 🇦🇺 incur thousands of dollars annually in unplanned reviews, hospital liaison and risk management due to preventable medication errors. Integrating e‑prescribing tightly with ASL, RTPM and clinical decision support reduces these downstream costs.

Affected Stakeholders

Psychiatrists, GPs with high mental health caseloads, Mental health pharmacists, Clinical risk and quality managers

Related Business Risks