Evaluating the effect of making the indication field compulsory in electronic prescriptions: A pre‐post study in a hospital prescribing system

After making the prescription indication field compulsory, the proportion of medicines with an indication increased from 29% to 76%, with only a small increase in 'rubbish text'. Following the system change, the quality of information recording improved but there was no change in medicine use. Compulsory fields should be combined with improvements in other components of care to improve medicine use.