A qualitative study exploring the acceptability and usability of the
e-Prescribing Risk and Safety Evaluation (ePRaSE) assessment within the
hospital-pharmacy-setting.
Abstract
Objectives: The e-prescribing risk and safety evaluation (ePRaSE) tool
was developed to support the evaluation of hospital e-prescribing
systems. The tool uses fictitious patients alongside previously
validated prescribing scenarios to detect whether these systems provide
prescribing advice to users, when completing inpatient prescribing
tasks. We sought to evaluate the usability and acceptability of ePRaSE
for clinical informatics pharmacy staff using different e-prescribing
systems in NHS hospitals across England. Materials and methods: All NHS
hospitals in England with live e-prescribing systems were invited to
participate via an email invitation to the chief pharmacists.
Participants were asked to complete the four-stage ePRaSE assessment,
whilst verbalising their thoughts and sharing their perspectives on the
acceptability and usability of the assessment. The data were transcribed
verbatim, coded and analysed using the Framework Approach. Results: Ten
participants from ten different hospitals across England conducted the
ePRaSE assessment between April and December 2019. They completed the
assessment in 2-3 hours and described the tool as easy to use and the
prescribing scenarios as clinically relevant. However, some participants
experienced difficulties inputting clinical data, such as laboratory
results, often due to restricted access to input data into different
parts of the electronic health record. Many participants suggested areas
for further improvement and suggested more detailed results on
completion of ePRaSE was desirable. Conclusions: E-prescribing system
users found ePRaSE to be a useful and acceptable tool. Further work to
refine the tool is desirable, particularly relating to the provision of
results to ePRaSE users.