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History
- Referred to higher education
- Referred to higher education
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Sponsor's memo
BILL NUMBER:S1319
Title of bill
An act to amend the education law and the public health law, in relation to requiring certain prescriptions to be typewritten
Purpose
Requires that prescriptions shall be typewritten, electronically printed or handwritten in ink or indelible pencil in a legible manner.
Summary of provisions
Subdivision 8 of section 6810 of the education law, as added by chapter 626 of the laws of 1985 is amended. The opening paragraph of subdivision 2 of section 3332 of the public health law as amended by chapter 178 of the laws of 2010 is amended.
Justification
In this era of skyrocketing malpractice insurance premiums, avoiding prescription error not only safeguards patient safety, but protects the doctor as well.
Typewritten or carefully printed prescriptions will lead to a safer environment in the interaction between physicians, pharmacists and other health-care providers. This legislation does not require advanced computer systems for prescription writing but only mandates that prescriptions be typed or printed legibly. Typing out prescriptions dramatically reduces errors.
To many patients and, unfortunately, pharmacists, handwriting often looks like a secret code between the physician and the druggist. Unfortunately, those scribbles are sometimes exactly what they appear to be, sloppy handwriting and unintelligible.
A 2010 Cornell Medical College study highlights the dangers associated with handwritten prescriptions. Five doctors followed the prescriptions issued by a sample of providers in outpatient settings. The researchers found 37 errors for every 100 paper prescriptions, and 7 per 100 for those using e-prescribing software. Typewritten prescriptions offer an alternative to e-prescribing software, while accomplishing the same goal. The Institute of Medicine estimated a $2 billion cost associated with adverse drug events often caused by illegible prescriptions.
In July 2006, a report from the National Academies of Science Institute of Medicine, found that preventable medication mistakes injure more than 1.5 million Americans annually. Many such errors result from unclear abbreviations, dosage indications and illegible writing on some of the 3.2 billion prescriptions written in the U.S. every year. In addition, doctors' sloppy handwriting kills more than 7,000 people annually {Cause of Death: Sloppy Doctors," WWW.TIME.COM. January 15, 2007.
While the vast majority of prescriptions are written and interpreted correctly, common sense dictates that typewritten prescriptions will
insure even more accurate readings. Pharmacists should be especially appreciative of more easily read prescription forms. Typewritten prescriptions only take about 2 minutes per order compared to 15 seconds for writing one, but the advantage far outweighs any extra moments involved.
Legislative history
2009-2010: S.1752 - Advanced to Third Reading and was reported to Codes Committee. 2011-2012: S.3356 - Referred to Higher Education
Fiscal implications
None to the state but litigation would be reduced, resulting in unknown savings to our court system.
Effective date
This act shall take effect on the two hundred seventieth day after it shall have become a law.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.