Is electronic prescription essential for hospitals? - A game theory model

Electronic prescription system brings an information technology progress for the traditional hospitals and this paper aims to solve the following four questions related to electronic prescription (EP): 1) why hospitals choose to adopt EP system? 2) Is electronic prescription necessary for hospitals in this paper? 3) Does the EP system have more advantages than disadvantages? 4) When is the right time that hospitals using the electronic prescription to maximize the revenues? We proposed a game theory model to explore these questions and carried out an equilibrium analysis, which generated the results about the profits gained from electronic prescription in some distinctive certain situations. Our findings provide a reference for hospitals to maximize profits from electronic prescription. The results also indicate the feasible suggestions for few technical issues existed in the EP system.