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Minnesota News: Electronic Prescriptions
Reprinted from the January 2007 Minnesota Board of Pharmacy Newsletter.
Board staff frequently receives questions about “electronic prescriptions.” For example, a common question is as follows: is a prescription that is electronically generated still valid if the prescriber prints it out on a sheet of paper and gives it to the patient? Once a prescription is printed out and given to the patient, it is no longer an electronic prescription. Consequently, it is valid only if it is manually signed by the prescriber. A rubber-stamped signature does not constitute a manual signature. A notation on a paper prescription such as “electronically signed by the prescriber” does not make it a legally valid prescription.
Minnesota Statutes §151.01, subdivision 16 defines a prescription as follows: “The term ‘prescription’ means a signed written order, or an oral order reduced to writing, given by a practitioner licensed to prescribe drugs for patients in the course of the practitioner’s practice, issued for an individual patient and containing the following: the date of issue, name and address of the patient, name and quantity of the drug prescribed, directions for use, and the name and address of the prescriber.” Given that this law was written long before the advent of electronic prescribing, the word “signed” must be interpreted to mean a manual, handwritten signature. A pharmacist who receives a paper prescription that has not been manually signed may contact the prescriber to verify the prescription and may treat it as an oral order. (Unless the drug is a Schedule II CS, prescriptions for which must be signed by the prescriber.)
Board staff also receives questions about electronic prescriptions for CS. Per federal law, prescriptions for Schedule II CS can not be electronically transmitted, nor can they be transmitted by facsimile, unless the patient is receiving home infusion/intravenous pain therapy, resides in a long-term care facility, or is in hospice care. In all other cases, prescriptions for Schedule II CS must be on paper and manually signed.
The Board has received correspondence from Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) concerning electronically created prescriptions for CS in Schedules III through V. It reads, in part: “current DEA regulations allow for Schedule III, IV or V [CS] prescriptions that are electronically created and transmitted, either directly to a computer or via a facsimile machine, to be treated as oral prescriptions. A pharmacist that receives an electronically transmitted prescription, via a facsimile or by other methods, must ensure the validity of the prescription prior to dispensing the [CS].” The letter further states that DEA does not mandate which method a pharmacist must use to ensure the validity of the prescription but does mention one possibility – calling the prescriber.
