Table 1 Inclusion and exclusion criteria
Criteria | Inclusion | Exclusion |
|---|---|---|
Time period | All up until 19 November 2018 | |
Publication language | English | Any other publication language |
Setting | Studies that were conducted in one or more hospital settings – general hospitals, specialist hospitals, teaching hospitals or any other type of hospital | Studies based in a primary care or outpatient setting: e.g. GP practices, ambulatory clinics, residential or nursing homes |
Any inpatient group – including adult and paediatric patients, medical, surgical and critical care patients | ||
Study design | Any study design, including controlled, uncontrolled (such as uncontrolled before-and-after studies), observational (including cohort and case-controlled studies), descriptive (such as surveys) or qualitative designs | Viewpoints, editorials, conference/meeting abstracts, expert opinions and grey literature. Systematic or similar reviews (e.g. narrative, scoping and realist reviews) were excluded but their references were reviewed to identify relevant studies |
Study participants | Studies focusing on doctors, pharmacists and/or nurses working with hospital inpatients. If there were a mix of any other healthcare professionals (HCPs) within a study, the study was only included if the data among the HCP groups could be distinguished | Studies that focused on other healthcare professionals e.g. physiotherapists, dieticians, occupational therapists unless the data could be extracted for the included healthcare professionals |
Intervention | Studies that focused on the impact of electronic prescribing (eP) systems on the working practices of healthcare professionals; these could include standalone eP systems or electronic prescribing and medication administration systems | Studies that focused on the impact of paper-based systems for prescribing without any comparison with eP systems |
The hospital could have a previously implemented eP system, or an eP system implemented during the course of the study | Studies that focused only on the introduction or impact of barcoded medication administration/clinical decision support/alerts/mobile health technology | |
Papers related to the introduction or impact of barcode medication administration/clinical decision support/alerts/mobile health technology but with the main focus being eP | Studies of a standalone discharge prescription system or specialist chemotherapy eP system |