Published on December 20, 2023, the decree relating to electronic prescription which now allows general practitioners equipped with teleservices, made available by the National Health Insurance Fund, to establish dematerialized prescriptions, also including data relating to their execution and the content of which will be stored in a database secured by health insurance.
At the same time, the practitioner establishes a paper prescription containing the information from the electronic prescription via a QR code from which the prescribing professional (pharmacist, radiologist, etc.) will retrieve this information from the database and inform the execution of the prescription. prescription.
As with all digital devices allowing the circulation of patients’ personal health information, the decree provides that patients can object to this method of prescription or to certain of its terms, but also exceptions (insufficient internet connection, unavailability of teleservices, one-off technical problems, etc.).
A priori, electronic prescribing only has advantages: fight against falsification of prescriptions, traceability of prescriptions, easier access to their content via teleservices, improvement of prescribing with software to assist with prescribing or dispensing.
A quick feedback on the implementation of recent digital health tools in France nevertheless allows for a certain skepticism.
Without the Covid-19 crisis having forced many practitioners whose offices were empty to use and appropriate teleconsultation, the latter would undoubtedly still be very little used.
But above all, the digital health space and the shared medical record, presented since January 1, 2022, as a revolution in patient care, are still very little used due to very few patients having activated their digital health space, either through negligence or lack of confidence in a device transferring all of their health information to a digital platform, but above all for practitioners who do not all benefit (far from in need) of compatible DMP business software and/or are reluctant to use a device whose complexity requires at least training…
The success of electronic prescribing therefore relies on the CNAM’s ability to quickly and efficiently equip health professionals with teleservices meeting conditions of simplicity, security and interoperability (in particular with the digital health space and the file). shared medical care of which electronic prescription will constitute an essential element).
Otherwise, paper prescriptions still have a bright future ahead of them.
