Eliminates Paper Pads To Avoid Incorrect Dosages Or Wrong Medications That Have Caused Illnesses And Even Deaths
(Long Island, NY) Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano and Nassau University Medical Center President and CEO, Dr. Victor F. Politi will join health officials at a press conference being held today, Monday March 28, 2016 at 2pm, to provide key details of New York States new law requiring doctors, dentists, pharmacies and other health providers, to use electronic prescriptions only, eliminating all handwritten communications to avoid medical errors, illnesses the flow of illegal prescriptions and deaths.
The paper prescription pad became a thing of the past yesterday, when the new law took effect. New York became the first state in the country to mandate electronic prescriptions for all medications. Doctors and others could face fines for not using e-prescriptions. The law became necessary after authorities and health officials found that stolen prescription pads were being used to funnel medicines into booming black markets. According to reports a blank prescription pad could be worth as much as $150,000 in street sales.
The new law is critically important as some 300 million to 350 million prescriptions are filled each year in New York by doctors and other health providers.
Patients and many health officials have long called for e-prescriptions, saying they will eliminate any handwriting errors. Hand writing that is difficult to read can result in the wrong dosage being prescribed or even the wrong medication. Some patients have become violently ill and some have even died as a result of difficult to read hand written prescriptions. Nassau University Medical Center writes tens of thousands of prescriptions a year.
