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The total number of electronic so called “white” prescriptions issued through the eRx mobile application has exceeded 1.2 million, according to data from the National Health Information System (NHIS). On average, over 2,800 prescriptions are generated daily by doctors, dentists, paramedics, and veterinarians. eRx was developed and launched by Information Services in early March 2023 to facilitate the issuance of electronic prescriptions by medical professionals in cases where they do not have access to a computer with medical software. For comparison, the total number of “white” prescriptions issued during the period exceeds 6.5 million, meaning that almost every 6th prescription is generated through the mobile application.
Through eRx, doctors can issue electronic prescriptions at any time and from any place. The issued prescription is recorded in the NHIS and becomes part of the patient's electronic health record.
"eRx significantly eases the process for patients and medical professionals during home visits, especially in hard-to-reach areas," said Branimir Petakov, Head of the Mobile Applications department at Information Services. Doctors can see the status of the prescriptions they have issued through eRx and find out whether they are active, fulfilled, or canceled, he added. According to him, the application is among the most innovative specialized medical products in the European Union. Canceled prescriptions are only 4,090 or less than 0.3% of the total issued, which proves its functionality and ease of use, Petakov also said.
So far, the free app for issuing “white” prescriptions has been downloaded over 52,000 times from the App Store and Google Play. In the past month, eRx has been actively used by 25,000 medical professionals. The Information Services team is in constant communication with members of professional organizations who use the application and provide regular feedback to enhance its functionalities and speed up the process of prescribing medications.
Up to now, doctors have created over 41,000 prescription templates, which greatly facilitates their work and saves significant time when issuing prescriptions. The application also works in offline mode and a prescription can be issued without an internet connection. It is saved in the local memory of the medical professional's mobile device, and when the internet connection is restored, the prescription is sent to the NHIS. It immediately becomes part of the patient's electronic health record and can be fulfilled by any pharmacy, saving a lot of time and costs for both doctors and citizens.