Vermont News: Use and Misuse

September 3, 2007 2:28 pm Topics: Prescriptions

Published in the September 2007 Vermont Board of Pharmacy Newsletter

Pharmacy Board Rule 19.3.4 states: “Carbon or duplicate prescriptions are not valid prescriptions.”

The purpose of this rule is to prohibit individuals from making copies of an original prescription and obtaining more of a regulated medication than was prescribed. This is a necessary safeguard in order to ensure ap¬propriate access to prescription medicine.
The purpose of electronic signatures is to enable a prescriber to send the prescription electronically, either via fax or by e-prescription directly to a pharmacy’s computer.

The Board has learned that some prescribers have been entering pre¬scription orders into their computer, electronically signing the prescription, and then printing out a copy of the prescription and giving that copy of the prescription to the patient. The paper given to the patient is a duplicate of an electronic prescription. It is not a valid prescription. This practice does not ensure that more copies of the prescription have not been made, even when they are printed on color paper.

If a prescriber wishes to issue a computer-generated prescription directly to a patient, the prescriber must print out the prescription and then manually sign the prescription. It is not acceptable to electronically sign the prescription and hand the prescription to the patient without manually signing it first. Again, that is not a valid prescription. The long standing requirement that a prescription given to a patient must be manually signed by the prescriber remains in effect.