Status Quo and Development of Electronic Prescription Service Modes in China / 中国药房

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE：To provide ideas for the development of electronic prescription （e-prescription）service mode under the background of “Internet+”. METHODS ：Retrieving official websites and related online resources of the national and provincial governments，health committees ，medical products administration ，and medical security bureaus （up to Jun. 2020），relevant policies，supporting documents and implementation status of e-prescription service mode were sorted out and analyzed ，and the suggestions were put forward. RESULTS ：Current e-prescription service modes included four modes ，such as pharmaceutical retail enterprise e-prescription service mode ，medical institution e-prescription information sharing service mode ，internet hospital e-prescription service mode ，and medical e-commerce e-prescription service mode. The pilot of e-prescription service mode of drug retail enterprises covered the widest range of provinces and cities ，but the participation of health departments and medical institutions was insufficient ，and the pattern of comprehensive power had not been formed. The medical institutions e-prescription information sharing service mode was mainly composed of three typical examples ，namely“Wuzhou mode ”，“Fuzhou mode ”and “Gansu mode ”. However ，it had not been unified in terms of technical standards ，access conditions ，exit mechanism and execution process，etc. At present ，this model was still in a small scope of exploration and pilot stage. The internet hospital e-prescription service mode was limited by the popularization of internet hospital medical insurance payment and the improvement of corresponding rules and regulations ，which was still at the stage of cautious pilot exploration. Medical e-commerce e-prescription service model was limited by the types of drugs within the legal service scope. Meanwhile ，the industry standards and regulations of e-prescription service were in the absence at present. CONCLUSIONS ：As an innovative service mode ，the e-prescription service mode meets the real needs of the pharmaceutical retail industries ，medical institutions and patients. Each pilot mode conforms to the development trend of “Internet+”and shows a strong development momentum ，but overall it is still in the early stage of active exploration. It is urgent to further explore and research around the leading departments ，stakeholders and prescription transfer procedures.