The Assisted Electronic Prescription in Patients Hospitalised in a Chest Diseases Ward

Abstract

Patient medical care requires a certain degree of individualized attention, and to this end technological support is becoming increasingly necessary, if not essential. Even so, the efforts directed at applying new technologies in the health-care system are not always sufficient, especially when taking into account that they could be key factors in patient safety. Treatments are often prescribed manually, which could lead to errors due to ambiguity of the prescriptions, illegibility, calculation errors or transcription errors. The increasing sophistication of computer systems and programs used in the hospital care setting can be fundamental in reducing patient risk, detecting and correcting errors, contributing to making decisions by means of help applications and reducing costs in the long-term. Polymedicated patients with common multiple diseases in medical specialty departments, such as Pulmonology, can particularly benefit from the application of these new technologies.