[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 18 (Thursday, February 17, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H722]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              ELECTRONIC PRESCRIBING SAVES LIVES AND MONEY

  (Mr. MURPHY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. MURPHY. Madam Speaker, according to the Institute of Medicine, 
over 7,000 people die and $29 billion are wasted every year due to 
medication errors. Electronic prescribing can change lives and save 
money.
  Medication errors are caused when physicians confuse the names of 
similar drugs, assign inappropriate dosage levels, issue redundant 
medications, or lead to harmful drug interactions, and allergic 
reactions. Electronic prescribing allows doctors to automatically and 
securely transmit a prescription to a patient's pharmacist. This 
technology eliminates the human errors caused by unreadable handwriting 
and improves the quality of care to patients.
  Electronic prescribing saves lives by immediately checking a 
patient's records to alert the physician of potential conflicts with 
other medical conditions, known allergies, interactions with other 
active prescriptions and duplicate therapies. Electronic prescribing 
also saves money by providing information to physicians and patients 
about lower-cost medications like generics, lets the doctors know which 
drugs are covered by their health plan, provides valuable access to 
research, and streamlines billing information and reduces 
administration costs.
  Madam Speaker, we need to make patient safety our national goal and 
make zero errors with medications a priority in health systems 
throughout the country. E-prescribing is one tool we can use to make 
this a reality in saving lives and saving money.

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