I mentioned in a previous blog post that we would have more blog posts related to heath care.

Some folks on our health care team gave me some statistics to explain the scope of the issue:

• Physicians write more than 4.5 billion prescriptions each year
• 7,000 Americans die and 1.5 million Americans are injured annually from preventable medication errors
• Fewer than 20 percent of physicians use electronic prescribing
• The cost of errors is $2 billion per year
• In a typical physician practice, physicians spend more than 3 hours per day handling phone calls and extra work from issues
• Four out of five patients who visit a physician leave with at least one

There's a real issue here, and it's growing. There is a significant opportunity for technology to make an impact on patient safety and physician efficiency. As we mentioned in an earlier post, Dell is working with Allscripts and other technology companies as a part of the National e-Prescribing Patient Safety Initiative (NEPSI) to drive adoption of e-prescribing nationwide.

NEPSI makes set up of an e-prescribing system easy for physicians by providing a web-based tool that is easy to implement. The physician can deploy Dell technology in their office, via a desktop, laptop or tablet PC and quickly be connected to e-prescribing software.

Electronic prescribing has been shown to dramatically decrease medication errors and improve efficiency by providing medication history, drug interactions and drug allergies. In addition, the total U.S. spend on health care is roughly $2 trillion annually. It's estimated that implementing e-prescribing could save $1.5 billion

In this vlog Glen Tullman, CEO of Allscripts discusses how e-prescribing benefits both patients and physicians. This is the second in a series of three interviews with Glen, so stay tuned for part three.