E-prescribing reduces errors, cost for large group practice

A test of Henry Ford Health Clinic's system showed that it increased generic prescribing and alerted physicians to a substantial number of potential drug reactions.

By Tyler Chin, AMNews staff. March 27, 2006.

The Henry Ford Health Clinic, a 900-member multispecialty practice in Detroit, says it has saved money and prevented tens of thousands of medication errors after a year of testing an electronic prescribing system with its 300 primary care physicians.

As a result, the clinic plans to roll out the technology across the entire group with the goal of writing all prescriptions electronically by the end of the year, said Mark A. Kelley, MD, executive Vice President of Henry Ford Health System and CEO of the Henry Ford Medical Group.

The group does not track how many prescriptions doctors in the group write annually, but it estimates the 300 doctors in the pilot are issuing more than 20,000 electronic prescriptions weekly.

Since launching the pilot in February 2003, more than 50,000 out of more than 500,000 electronic prescriptions were changed because of drug formulary alerts. The changes helped boost generic use to 7.3% and resulted in cost savings of $3.1 million over a one-year period, said Matt Walsh, associate vice president of purchaser initiatives at Health Alliance Plan, Michigan's second-largest HMO, which is owned by Henry Ford Health System.

The clinic could not say how much of the increase in generic drugs was the result of e-prescribing, but physicians who used the electronic system increased their generic rate by 1.25% more than those who did not, spokesman Dwight Angell said. "If this spread is realized over the entire [group], it would translate into over $1 million in yearly drug cost savings."