Unexpected Increase in Benzodiazepine Prescriptions Related to the Introduction of an Electronic Prescribing Tool: Evidence from Multicenter Hospital Data.

Electronic Prescribing tools (e-prescribing) have shown several benefits in terms of prescribing process adequacy and health care quality in hospital settings. We hypothesize however, that an undesired effect of digitalisation, due to the easier and faster prescribing process allowing patients to skip face-to-face conversations with patients and nurses, is that it could facilitate the prescription of medications at high risk of overuse or abuse, such as benzodiazepines (BZDs). We conducted a panel data study to investigate, the impact of the introduction of an e-prescribing system on new BZD prescriptions in hospitalised patients in a network of five teaching hospitals.