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A study of prescriptions written in outpatient clinics
found errors on 17% of the scripts. Researchers found that most of the
errors were dosing mistakes. The most common type of error was a dosing
error. New prescriptions were more likely to be associated with errors
than were refills. The error rate for new prescriptions was 24%, while
for refills it was 10%. Computerized prescribing did reduce the errors
considerably. Only 4% of the computerized prescriptions contained errors
while the error rate for handwritten prescriptions was 34%.
23rd annual meeting of
the Society of General Internal Medicine Boston May 9, 2000
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