Survey finds lack of support for texting of medical orders

Editor's Note

A survey released November 16 by the Institute for Safe Medication Practices found that many healthcare providers do not support the texting of medical orders.

Of 778 respondents, which included nurses, pharmacists, physicians and other prescribers, medication/patient safety officers, and quality risk managers, 33% did not believe medical orders should be texted under any circumstances, and 40% thought the practice was acceptable only when using an encrypted device application.

Commonly cited concerns were the potential for unintended text autocorrections, confusing abbreviations, patient misidentifications, misspellings, and incomplete orders. 

In June through August 2017, we invited readers of our acute care, community/ambulatory care, long-term care, and nursing newsletters to complete an online survey about the texting of medical orders in healthcare.

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