Challenges and Practicalities in the Introduction of Electronic Prescriptions:

The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare began offering electronic prescription services on January 26, 2023. This electronic prescription service links master data for standardized YJ codes (drugs), generic name prescription codes, and electronic receipt codes, enabling the sharing of prescription and dispensing information between medical institutions and pharmacies. However, the introduction of electronic prescriptions presents several challenges, including the registration of Healthcare Public Key Infrastructure electronic certificates, verification of prescription linkage with billing systems, development of electronic medical record master data, and the design of workflows involving nearby pharmacies. In this paper, we report cases in which investigation and countermeasures were required to address these issues. Prior to implementation, only 14.8％ of physicians were able to issue electronic prescriptions; however, a survey conducted by the medical affairs division showed that this proportion increased to 52.7％ after 7 months. Verification of prescription sharing with nearby pharmacies revealed that prescription information was not being shared for some functions, and inconsistencies arose due to differences in billing systems across companies. In addition, during the development of electronic medical record master data, numerous inconsistencies were identified between the standard master data for electronic prescriptions and that for topical medications at our hospital.