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The federal government is going to start giving bonuses to doctors who electronically prescribe medicines for Medicare patients.
We've all seen scribbled-out doctors' notes that are nearly impossible to read, and every year the United States has around 1.5 million medical errors reported.
"Most of those errors come because of handwritten scripts, or come because dosing's misinterpreted," said Mark Singleton, of Salt Lake-based RX America.
Singleton works with more than 64,000 pharmacies and has been working to convince doctors that prescribing medications on a computer is much safer. He says Utah's doctors could be doing better.
"Utah is sitting at No. 34 in the nation when it comes to e-prescribing," Singleton said. He says the cost of setting up the secured system is the biggest deterrent.
Next year, the federal government will start giving bonuses to doctors who use e-prescribing for Medicare in hopes that more doctors will log on.
E-mail: rjeppesen@ksl.com
