Prescription Narcotic Addiction Can Be Reduced By Electronic Prescriptions

The two largest online prescription drug networks in the community accept merged operations, bringing 70 percent of U.S. drugstores into a network that allows doctors to remotely access patient data, and write prescriptions from their office computers. Called an "e-prescription system", it saves lives by reducing errors, and helps eliminate the prescription fraud commonly associated with prescription drug addiction.
The "cashless merger" follows years of discussions and planning between the three largest managers of U.S. pharmacy plans and a accumulation of pharmacy chains that too posses e-prescription systems. Drug outlets subscribing to the just out larger step will include Wal-Mart, Walgreens, Rite-Aid, Duane-Read, CVS, and others.
Pharmacists strongly support electronically transmitting prescriptions and other patient counsel directly from computers in doctors" offices to the drugstore. More than 1.5 million Americans a year are affected by prescription errors due to illegible handwriting, and clarifying such confusions can cost pharmacies thousands of dollars a year in extra staff time.
The technology also helps save lives by avoiding heavy drug combinations that occur when patients fail to tell doctors approximately other prescriptions they"re taking. If it"s a new doctor, and there"s no record of the earlier prescriptions at any but the initial drug store, patients are at risk of dangerous drug combinations.
As well as patient safety and convenience, e-prescription technology besides helps combat prescription drug addiction by reducing "doctor shopping". Many prescription drug abusers hop from doctor to doctor, city to city, and even across polity lines, hoping to secure a prescription for a controlled substance by faking symptoms to virgin doctors.
Unless addicts keep sophisticated false identification, e-prescribing reduces prescription drug addiction because previous prescriptions written anywhere in the homeland by a participating doctor, or filled at a participating pharmacy, are in the database.
Equally decisive in the battle against prescription drug addiction are prescription forgeries, usually written on prescription pads stolen from doctors" offices. This avenue of flotation for prescription drug addiction is eliminated by paperless e-prescriptions.
The merged databases include medical histories and drug records for 200 million patients, and advanced patients are added as they arrive. Presently, matchless a tiny minority of physicians -- around 6 percent -- actually utilize e-prescribing, while over two-thirds of all pharmacies are equipped and ready for it. But health insurers, business groups, Congress and much the DEA are urging doctors and patients to take service of the added safety and convenience of online prescribing.
Drug stores nationwide keep been subjected to increasing numbers of break-ins, employee thefts, and yet daylight robberies at gun-point by prescription drug addicts seeking controlled substances. Although such crimes testament not be prevented by e-prescription services, prescription drug addicts can embark on to recover their lives nailed down medical drug detox programs, if after apprehension by code enforcement, or wound up support and encouragement from friends and family.

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