Risk Assessment of Pharmacies & Electronic Prescriptions

Software for electronic prescriptions offers healthcare providers numerous benefits including increased patient safety, prescribing effectiveness, workflow efficiencies, and financial savings. Particularly due to recent legislation, an increasing number of organizations are adopting this software. Yet, there are many concerns and risks associated with e-prescription technologies. Despite increased prescribing effectiveness, there is still the potential for human error. Many software concerns including integration and the implementation of specific transactions like CancelRx still need to be addressed. Additionally, some patients have negative perceptions of e-Rx that must be overcome. To this effect, this research conducts risk assessment of two real world cases (the CVS Pharmacy (retail setting) and the Ascension Seton (inpatient setting)) using the NIST risk model. The study concludes that the top three challenges in the pharmacy domain are comprised of a lack in the implementation of essential software functionalities, the loss and theft of portable devices, and errors due to email phishing attacks.