Background: Despite the increasing global trend towards e-prescribing, its impact in India is uncertain. Therefore the factors towards successful implementation of e-prescribing system are worth exploring. Objectives: To assess physicians and pharmacists’ satisfaction, the factors that determine their satisfaction and perceptions about the advantages and disadvantages of e-prescribing system. Method: A cross-sectional, anonymous questionnaire survey was administered to physicians and pharmacists. Factors pertaining to reliability, speed, ease of use, adequacy of training and impact on productivity and patient care of the system were determined. Two-tailed t tests were used to find the differences in satisfaction level. Simple correlation analysis was used to find the relation between factors and satisfaction level. Results: 389 (57%) physicians and pharmacists responded, of which 323 questionnaires that met inclusion criteria were included for analysis. The users were generally satisfied with e-prescribing system (mean=4.75 on a 7 point scale). The pharmacists were more satisfied than the physicians (95% vs. 75%; p<0.001) and the medical physicians more than surgeons (80% vs. 71%; p=0.055). Relatively, many physicians (25%) than pharmacists (5%) were dissatisfied. The user satisfaction was positively correlated with majority of factors (p<0.01; r ≥ 0.3) defined pre-hoc that included time saving, productivity, safety, system response time and reliability. However, none of the factors had significant negative correlation with dissatisfaction. Conclusion: Overall the users were satisfied with e-prescribing system; however, senior physicians were more dissatisfied than others. The findings have implications for strategic training, development of additional features and optimize use among dissatisfied users.
