A role of nurse e-prescription in GPs’ time reorganization

Abstract

The digitization of Polish health care began before 2000, but recent years, especially the period of the COVID pandemic, accelerated it. The basis of the digital ecosystem of medical services is the e-health system P1. P1 consists of digital services: e-prescription, e-referral, DMR, and applications: Internet Patient Account, MojeIKP, office.gov.pl, as well as solutions improving the processes of planning and implementing health care services.
 One of the most popular e-tools used in medical services is the e-prescription. It was first issued in 2018, and since 2020 it has been a permanent element of e-services. Its advantages are, for example:
 -accelerating and facilitating the process of issuing prescriptions,
 -ensuring the correctness of issuing an e-prescription,
 -this prescription cannot be lost, because it is ""in the patient's phone"" and on his electronic account
 -the doctor has an access to all e-prescriptions filled by the patient
 -it enables the National Health Fund to keep accurate statistics on issued and dispensed prescriptions
 Since January 2016, nurses and midwives in Poland have had the right, with some restrictions, to prescribe basic medicines (on their own) and to continue prescription medicines ordered by a doctor, with the exception of narcotics and psychotropic drugs. That has given an easier access to certain health services for Polish patients.
 Currently, both e-prescriptions and the nurse prescribing, as a systemic solution, allow Polish doctors for saving their time and spending it more effectively on the complex needs of their patients. 
 The aim of this study is to present the data of nursing prescribing as well as to show how nurse e-prescription influences the time saving by doctors.
 The study is based on the statistical data and the initial simulation was carried in Medical and Diagnostic Center LTD. An in-depth analysis may deliver crucial knowledge not only for single doctors, but also health managers and politicians.
 
 The study covers the years 2016-2022 and answers the following research questions:
 1.How many e-prescriptions have been issued since the implementation of the e-prescription by doctors and nurses/midwives?
 2.How has nursing prescription evolved due to digitalization – comparative study of statistical data
 3.How many nurses do regularly issue e-prescriptions (at least once a month)?
 4.What is the possibility of saving time by the doctors when prescription visits are carried out by nurses?
 5.What challenges do e-prescriptions face as a tool that serves the medical personnel, patients and the whole health system?