New York State Moving To Electronic Prescriptions

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- New York state doctors are ditching the prescription pad.

CBS2's Jessica Schneider reports electronic prescriptions in the state will begin on March 27 as everyone will get their orders filled from the computer.

"The idea of moving everything electronically is to get a tighter control of everything that is prescribed," Roger Paganelli, president of the Pharmacists Society of New York, told CBS2.

Paganelli is among the third generation in his family to run the Mount Carmel Pharmacy in the Fordham section in the Bronx. One-third of the prescriptions he fills come in off his computer.

CBS2 reports that moving to electronic prescriptions is not only meant to streamline, but also to keep controlled substances in check. Currently, the state has a database that prescribers can check how many prescriptions their patients are getting, but this will connect the doctors directly to the pharmacists.

"We turn forged prescriptions away every day," Paganelli told CBS2. "It's a huge problem. It's something that's undeniable."

More than 90 percent of pharmacies in the state are already equipped to go all-electronic, and hospitals say they're almost ready, too. Most doctors don't handwrite prescriptions anymore.

"We haven't used handwritten prescriptions in years, but we'd still print it out and patients would leave with their prescriptions," Paul Testa, chief medical information officer of NYU Langone, told CBS2.

Bernice Washburn has already used e-prescriptions and thinks they're better.

"People tend to forget that they have their prescriptions. They leave them at home or forget where they are," she told CBS2.

There are some exceptions to the e-prescription mandate. If people are filling prescriptions out of state, they can still get them in paper form.