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Computer prescribing systems used by general practices in the United Kingdom are endangering patients' lives by failing to pick up on some hazardous drug combinations.

Patient Safety Monitor Alert, May 20, 2004

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Computer prescribing systems used by general practices in the United Kingdom are endangering patients' lives by failing to pick up on some hazardous drug combinations, according to research appearing in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) May 15.

Researchers tested four computer systems currently used by about 75% of general practices in the UK. All of them failed to detect known prescribing errors, especially where drugs were contraindicated.

Serious failures discovered by researchers included:

• Allowing the prescription of the oral contraceptive pill to women with a history of deep vein thrombosis. 
  
• Allowing the prescription of aspirin to a child. There is a known risk of aspirin causing children to develop Reye's syndrome, a potentially fatal disorder.

"Most of the problems we discovered in this study can be resolved," says Aziz Sheikh, professor of primary care research and development at the University of Edinburgh. "One solution is to have tighter regulations about suppliers flagging up prescribing alerts. We also need to have regular dialogue between the system and drug database users."

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