Development and Evaluation of a Prescription Checking System Using Clinical Laboratory Data

Abstract

Clinical laboratory data are an important basis for understanding the patient’s condition when pharmacists examine the appropriateness of prescriptions. Since it is difficult for them to check patient clinical laboratory data at the time of dispensing, we developed a prescription checking system under which prescription data and clinical laboratory data are simultaneously transmitted to the pharmacy and any abnormal clinical laboratory data are marked on the prescription sheet and the prescription-checking list. Pharmacists can use these marks to check the patient’s condition.
Between December 2004 and November 2005, abnormal clinical laboratory data were marked on 245 prescriptions under our system, and based on this, pharmacists advised doctors of 25 cases in which drugs were contraindicated, and corrections were made. We therefore conclude that our system is useful in promoting the proper use of drugs.