Publications & Resources

Characterizing prescription errors as “relatively common but preventable,” The Pharmaceutical Journal has published recommendations for preventing the mistakes, which can represent threats to patient safety.

NYS Public Health Law requires that a written treatment plan be placed in the patient’s medical record when a practitioner prescribes opioids for pain management for longer than three months or past the time of normal tissue healing.

NPR and Fierce Healthcare recently raised the question, will hospitals be held accountable if patients become addicted to opioids? According to the articles, overprescription of opioids contributes to the current crisis, and many physicians don’t understand how quickly addiction can happen.

As part of New York’s efforts to curb opioid abuse, Governor Cuomo recently signed legislation to amend New York State Public Health Law §3331, which will take effect on July 22, 2016. Restrictions have been put in place to limit initial narcotic prescriptions to seven days.

The objective of the program is to prevent the improper procurement of prescriptions for controlled substances across state lines.

Mandatory e-prescribing of all prescription medication, controlled substances and non-controlled substances, takes effect in New York State on March 27, 2016. All practitioners need to be familiar with the requirements of this law.

Educating patients about their prescription medications and keeping medical records updated with prescription information both help to ensure patient safety.

A new state regulation goes into effect on March 27, 2015, requiring all medication prescriptions to be electronically prescribed.