A pair of Ontario family doctors say they'll have to go back to sending patient prescriptions to pharmacies by fax because a federally funded agency is doing away with an efficient electronic system, with no clear plans for its replacement.

The software allows doctors to instantly send drug prescriptions to pharmacies and approve prescription renewal requests with a click of a mouse. The system brings up the renewal request in an electronic prompt attached to each patient's health record.

It's a crucial tool because Bolzon said he receives up to 35 prescription renewal requests in a typical day while also handling about 30 daily in-person appointments.

So if PrescribeIT is helping doctors manage their patient loads and there's no clear replacement in place, why pull the plug?

In a statement to CBC News, Canada Health Infoway said they worked with governments and system providers to keep PrescribeIT operating. However, the statement said there was no shared funding model and "no viable model emerged that would support the continued operation of a single national service over the long term."

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] streetfestival@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

Allow me to provide some context that's glaringly missing from the article. There was a major under-adoption issue that was a factor in the scrapping of this program. This identifies a new target for intervention: incentivizing primary care offices to get off fax so that we can successfully roll out a more efficient electronic systems like this.

Doctors are still faxing prescriptions in 2026. Ottawa’s $250-million program to change that was just shut down

Despite the number of providers on board, use of the service has remained low. Less than 5 per cent of prescriptions are sent electronically in Canada each year, according to reports from Canada Health Infoway and Telus Health.