Table 4.

Prescribers’ perceived impact of electronic prescribing of controlled substances (EPCS) on medication errors and diversion (of a total of 70 EPCS users responding with at least one prescription transmitted electronically)

Problems during the past 6 months:	N	Baseline mean	Follow-up mean	p Value†
A. Was alerted that the pharmacy incorrectly filled prescription with wrong drug**	63	1.32	1.10	0.007
B. Was alerted that incorrect dose strength or instruction was dispensed at the pharmacy**	63	1.41	1.21	0.007
C. Prescription you wrote was altered by a patient or someone other than yourself*	59	1.27	1.10	0.029
D. Prescription was not written by you, or counterfeit prescriptions discovered	63	1.08	1.03	0.480
E. Your prescription pads were stolen	61	1.07	1.00	0.180
F. Incorrect medication was prescribed by you (eg, wrote down wrong drug, dose or strength)	66	1.46	1.42	0.753
G. Medication interactions were unknown at time of prescribing	63	1.49	1.48	0.991
H. Patient reported they had lost the written prescription requiring a replacement prescription*	67	2.27	2.05	0.029
I. Received call from patient or pharmacy that prescribed medication was not covered by insurance	64	3.03	2.95	0.785

Scale is from 1=never occurred in past 6 months to 5=occurred >10 times in past 6 months. No statistical significant difference between original and follow-up survey responses for control group.

Difference between baseline and follow up responses significant at *p<0.05; **p<0.01; ***p<0.001.

†Wilcoxon signed rank test for pairs.