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With the click of a mouse, doctors in New York State will soon be able to aba
ndon their sometimes illegible medication notes for electronic prescriptions. As of March 27, New York is the first state in the nation to require all physicians to use electronic prescriptions, a law backed up by fines and criminal penalties.
The basis of the new mandate lies in a 2012 state law, I-Stop, designed to decrease prescription opioid abuse. I-Stop created an online registry listing all medications prescribed to an individual patient. In an effort to reduce substance abuse, doctors were required to check the list before prescribing any new medications. Far from infallible, I-Stop’s registry remained vulnerable to human error – intentional or unintentional – as even a minor misspelling could thwart medication tracking.
The hope is that by shifting to an entirely electronic prescription system, medications can be carefully tracked and fraud mitigated, if not eliminated altogether. The prescriptions will be managed via the Surescripts network. Surescripts, which processes over 1 billion e-prescriptions per year, connects doctor’s offices, hospitals, pharmacists and health plans through an integrated platform.
While the shift to electronic prescripts robs consumers of some agency –patients will have limited ability to change pharmacies – a 2015 survey by Surescripts revealed a majority of patients felt more secure with physicians who were “digitally connected.” In fact, more than 50% of survey respondents admitted online access to test results, medical records, and appointment scheduling would all be compelling enough to choose one doctor over another.
Despite the law, many of New York’s health care providers have yet to make the switch to electronic prescriptions. As of January, a little over half of the state’s prescribers were able prescribe and send prescriptions electronically. Some of the state’s biggest providers have applied for waivers. According to the New York Times, “hospitals and nursing homes are among the late adopters, in part because of the complexity of rolling out technical systems in big institutions.”
The new rules will be an adjustment for patients and doctors on the front lines, especially when it comes to flexibility. Under the new protocol, a pharmacy must be chosen before a prescription can be sent, and any modifications will require a phone call from the prescribing physician. Many anticipate this change will lead to an increase in prescriptions for more conventional drugs as well as a standardization of dosing and medication regimens.
Ultimately, electronic prescriptions will undoubtedly streamline and strengthen medication management, but for the short term, the new system will require some hands on work from health care staff, including handwritten prescriptions for “extenuating circumstances.” Nevertheless, the change comes with many benefits for clinicians and patients, such as better record keeping and coordination of care.
When making the announcement to her staff, Supervising Nurse Silvia Cota tells the New York Times she advised her nurses, “It really is not a complicated thing. We just have to get used to it.”
