A consideration of the factors that affect the adoption of electronic prescriptions in dispensing pharmacies

Abstract

The Japanese government aims to launch electronic prescriptions (e-prescriptions) in January 2023. Adopting electronic prescriptions entails certain costs, but a delay in adopting electronic prescriptions would mean losing customers to other pharmacies. The purpose of this study, is to consider the important factors that affect the adoption of electronic prescriptions in dispensing pharmacies. Based on published data, we quantified the costs required to operate electronic prescriptions and the lost profit in the case of not adopting electronic prescriptions. We found that lost profit is a more important factor than all the costs. This finding suggests that close attention should be paid to the time schedule of issuing electronic prescriptions by medical institutions that are the prescribers, and to adopt electronic prescriptions at an early stage.

Given that electronic prescriptions will surely be launched in the future, it is important that dispensing pharmacies are well prepared to adopt electronic prescriptions as soon as possible, taking into account their locations and customer characteristics, in order not to be overwhelmed by medical DX and to ensure a stable profit.