University Research Report: Electronic Prescribing System Analysis

This research report delves into the realm of electronic prescribing, examining its implementation, benefits, and associated challenges within the healthcare sector. The report begins with an introduction that provides background information on the topic and outlines the problem statement, which focuses on fraudulent activities and data integrity concerns in the absence of electronic prescriptions. The purpose of the study is to highlight the efficiency gains achieved through electronic prescribing, with research questions addressing the advantages of the system and its role in preventing fraud. The report then establishes a theoretical framework and research hypothesis, followed by an exploration of the significance of the study, definition of terms, ethical considerations, delimitations, and limitations. A comprehensive literature review examines the processing systems, design, and security requirements of electronic prescribing, along with the benefits to medical corporations, patients, and physicians. The report also addresses the problems associated with electronic prescribing and analyzes relevant data, including adoption rates and physician satisfaction levels. The research methodology section details the research worldview, design, strategy, data collection methods, and analysis techniques, as well as the population and sample used in the study. The report concludes with a reference list.

Running head: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research Methodology
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Background..................................................................................................................................3
Problem statement.......................................................................................................................3
Purpose statement........................................................................................................................3
Research questions and objectives...............................................................................................3
Theoretical Framework................................................................................................................4
Research hypothesis.....................................................................................................................4
Significance of the study.............................................................................................................4
Definition of terms.......................................................................................................................4
Ethical Considerations.................................................................................................................4
Delimitation.................................................................................................................................5
Limitation....................................................................................................................................5
Literature review..............................................................................................................................6
Processing system of electronic prescription...............................................................................6
Design of the electronic prescribing processing system..............................................................6
Security requirement of EPP.......................................................................................................6
Benefits to the medical corporations...........................................................................................7
Benefit to the patients and the physicians....................................................................................7
Problems with the electronic prescribing....................................................................................8

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Datas associated with electronic prescribing...............................................................................9
Review of methodologies..........................................................................................................13
Review of theories.....................................................................................................................13
Research methodology...................................................................................................................14
Research worldview...................................................................................................................14
Research design.........................................................................................................................14
Research strategy.......................................................................................................................14
Method of data collection..........................................................................................................14
Method of data analysis.............................................................................................................14
Population..................................................................................................................................15
Sample.......................................................................................................................................15
Reference List................................................................................................................................16

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Introduction
Background
The back of the study helps in growing the interests of the reader about the topic. The
researcher needs to use statistical data or articles that have been written by different scholars so
that the reader can associate the original article with the research study.
Problem statement
The problem statement will help in finding the difference between the desired and actual
outcome. The statement of the problem for this research will be the fraudulent activities that are
carried out without the presence of electronic prescription. The integrity of the data will be lost
without a proper electronic system.
Purpose statement
The purpose of this research study will be to highlight the efficiency that is maintained in
the hospital with the use of electronic prescribing. The data will be collected by providing a set
of questionnaires to the employees of the hospital in Harrisburg and interviewing the managers
of the hospital about electronic prescribing.
Research questions and objectives
The questions for conducting the research are as follows:
 What are the advantages of using electronic prescribing in the hospital?
 How does electronic prescribing helps in stopping fraudulent activities within the
hospital?

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Theoretical Framework
The research study will be conducted based on the theories that will help in providing an
explanation about the use of electronic processing systems in the process of prescribing to the
patients by the medical practioner.
Research hypothesis
The research study will be based on the following hypothesis:
 Electronic prescribing helps in efficient management within the hospital.
 Electronic prescribing does not help in efficient management within the hospital.
Significance of the study
This process of research will help in studying the ways electronic prescribing helps the
medical organizations in safely handling the billing process and keeping the information secured.
Definition of terms
Electronic prescribing- It helps the physicians in writing and sending the prescriptions of
the patients to the pharmacy in an electronic process.
Encryption- It is the process through which the information is converted in to a code so
that it does not have any unauthorized access.
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)- It is an security technology that helps in establishing a link
between the browser and the server on the web.
Ethical Considerations
The research process will be conducted by following some etiquettes and policies by the
researcher so that it can be conducted in an appropriate manner. The researcher needs to be

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patient while conducting the interviews with the managers, as they may not be available all the
time. The researcher will not use any kind of force on the managers so that they undertake the
interviews. The researcher also needs to provide sufficient time to the employees so that they can
fill up the questionnaires while carrying on with their work. The responses and the data that will
be collected will be protected under the Data Protection Act, which up on breaking may result in
severe punishment for the researcher.
Delimitation
The delimitation for the research is that it has to be based on a hospital in Harrisburg. The
research needs to be conducted on several organizations, which will help in providing various
datas for the research to be authentic in nature.
Limitation
The research process could have been conducted in a better manner if there was a
provision for more time. The limitation on time and financial constraints has led to the research
to be focused on some aspects of electronic prescribing.

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Literature review
The literature review will help in reviewing the articles on the topic of electronic
prescribing that has been published by other scholars. It will help in getting a better
understanding about the topic by the researcher.
Processing system of electronic prescription
The practice of generating electronic prescriptions has been in existence over a period of
years but was complicated to be used by the medical practitioners (Jani, Barber & Wong, 2014).
The system of electronic prescribing has been in practice in the United States as well within a
small group of pharmacies who were all under the same provider of the system. The
prescriptions through this process are sent by fax or electronic mails (Franklin et al., 2017).
Design of the electronic prescribing processing system
The basic design of the system consists of three different users, which are dispensers,
prescribers and PPA, which is known as Application Programming Interface (API) on a
combined manner (Barber, Comford & Klecun, 2017). The actual prescriptions are stored as
digitally signed certificates within the system by using a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
(LDAP). The use of LDAP is more, as it can store the data in a digital format within the Public
Key Infrastructure (PKI) (Ammenwerth et al., 2015).
Security requirement of EPP
The people who are experts in the medical line are bound to protect the confidentiality of
the information about the patients. Thus, the transfer of textual prescriptions that are in plain
texts over an unsecured network needs to be avoided by them. It is important that the experts in
the medical line may only have access to the process of electronic prescribing, which may

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prevent in hampering the information that is being sent over the networks (Tamblyn et al., 2016).
The confidentiality and the integrity of the services in security need to be provided by PKI,
which will help in the processing of the electronic prescriptions by the medical practioner. The
information can be kept confidential through cryptography, as in the parties need to have the
encryption and decryption key with them so that the information can only be accessed by them. a
disadvantage of this process is the distribution of the key when multiple parties need to be
communicated at the same time for the same matter (Corley, 2013).
Benefits to the medical corporations
The benefit of the medical corporations is that it can collect the information, which helps
in providing the habits of prescribing by the medical practioner by allowing them to use the
generic medications that cost less. The doctors have the program by default in their computers,
which helps them in formulating the prescriptions that can be sent to the pharmacies (Gellert,
Ramirez & Webster, 2015).
The plans of staying healthy by the patients along with the pharmacies help the managers,
as the financial part can be reduced considerably by efficiently being associated with an accurate
and clean prescription. The companies that deal in pharmaceutical products needs to have the
data that the medical practioner has prescribed for the patient along with the information that is
present with the vendors of the electronic prescribing (Porterfield, Engelbert & Coustasse, 2014).
Benefit to the patients and the physicians
The electronic prescribing are beneficial to the patients as well because it helps the
pharmacies in receiving the prescriptions that are legitimate before the patient even leaves the

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office of the physicians. It also helps in checking the interactions that are based on drugs along
with the allergies that the patient may have towards the drug (King et al., 2014).
The providers of this electronic medium are mainly Allscripts, eScript, Medical Manager,
ZIX and Chart Rx. The prescriptions that are made by the physicians for the patients are
electronically transferred to the pharmacies along with a printed copy that is given to the patient.
the patients are provided with a identifier that is private to them, which helps them in accessing
the information that has been sent to the pharmacy by the medical practioner. The parents of the
patients can be given the prescription by the pharmacy if they can show the signed copy that has
been provided to them by the physician. This helps in producing the prescriptions that are more
accurate and legible than the prescriptions that are written by hand (Ventola, 2014).
Problems with the electronic prescribing
The problems with the electronic prescribing is that the pediatricians need to pay an
amount that is between $600 to $2000 for getting a full-time access to the software so that the
demographic information of the patients can be downloaded along with the instruction and set up
fees. There is also an extra amount that needs to be given on an annual basis for the upgrades and
services of the software. The involvement of hidden cost is also present, as the persons need to
get used to the techniques by putting in extra time so that they can understand the glitches that
may be present when the information on the prescription is being transmitted (Hincapie et al.,
2014).
The software program with respect to the electronic prescribing needs to download the
records of the patients, which may contain the important information about the patients after
being purchased. The offices that deal with this type of softwares need to update their databases

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every time a new patient is being checked by the physician, which consumes more time that
needs to be done by some other person or an organization that has been sponsored in doing the
same (Motulsky et al., 2015).
Datas associated with electronic prescribing
(Source: Nanji et al., 2014)
It can be seen from the above graph the adoption of this electronic system started back in
2005 by the medical organizations and the response was nice related to it. The utilization and the
optimization of the software program started gradually by the year 2009 and since then the graph
has just moved upwards on a constant manner. Currently, more than 1.2 billion companies are
using the system, which shows that the adoption of the software has been positive all throughout
the decade. With so many complicated cases that are on the rise among the people, the
physicians find it fit to use this technique, as it will help them in keeping the information about
the respective patients confidential. The medical organizations are trying to keep the information

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about their patients confidential so that most of them do not have to face any embarrassment
within the society that they are trying to live in.
(Source: Fuchs et al., 2016)
This figure tries to give us a better insight about the satisfaction that is derived by the
physicians that are based in the office. It can be seen that almost 38 percent of the physicians are
very satisfied with the method of electronic prescribing, as they find it to be useful for sharing
the information with the pharmacies in a confidential manner. 47 percent of the physicians are
satisfied to some extent, as they find the technique to be more time-consuming, as mostly the
patients cannot interact for a long time with the physicians. It can also be inferred from the graph
above that almost 15 percent of the physicians are not satisfied with the technique of electronic
prescribing, as they find that the use of the software is a waste of time and money. The
physicians in the mean time can check a lot of patients, which will help in increasing their
chances of income and solving most of the issues that the patients may have.

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(Source: Motulsky et al., 2015)
It can be seen from the above figure that almost all the countries in the world have
adopted the system of electronic prescribing, which has helped them in easing out the
relationship with the patients. The patients can rely in a better way on the physicians, as their
medical past and the information can be kept confidential and the pharmacies will help them in
purchasing the prescribed medicines. It can be seen that countries like the United States, United
Kingdom and Canada have high levels of electronic prescribing in their medical organizations, as
both the males and the females physicians is accustomed to the practice of sharing the medical
information with help of the software to the pharmacies.