Required changes to Rx in Texas

[wjstarck]

Hello-

FYI, I just received a letter from Texas DPS regarding changes to the prescribing information that will be required effective September 1st, 2008. Here is the verbatim text of the letter:

"Effective September 1st, 2008, all prescriptions for Schedule II-V controlled substances must contain the below information to be considered valid and, subsequently, filled:

1) quantity of the substance prescribed (written both as a number and as a word)
2) date of issue (cannot be postdated)
3) name, address, and date of birth or age of the patient
4) name and strength of the controlled substance prescribed
5) directions for use of the controlled substance
*6) intended use of the substance prescribed unless the practititioner determines the furnishing of this information is not in the best interest of the patient
7) Printed or stamped name, address, Federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) registration number, and telephone number of the practitioner's usual place of business
The signature of the prescribing practitioner, unless the prescription is called in to the pharmacy
*9) The practitioner's current and valid DPS registration number for practitioners licensed in Texas. The DPS registration number must belong to the practitioner issuing the prescription; the prescribing practitioner may be a properly registered physician's assistant or an advanced practice nurse on schedules III-V prescriptions."

AFAIK, OD does not do #s 6 and 9

[Jorgebon]

Seems like states are folllowing some sort of federal mandate because I received a similar letter stating basically the same things, except for the intended use (that's probably a Texas thing). Down here they also recommend we add our NPI number.
Jorge Bonilla, DMD

[jordansparks]

#6 can just be incorporated into the directions. For example "Take 1 tablet TID as needed for pain".
#9 is not yet supported.

We are simultaneously moving towards two parallel solutions. One is the sheets feature, which will give you total control over layout and content on Rx. So you could indeed add a DPS number even if we didn't have that field in the database.

The other parallel solution is the imminent switch to electronic Rx.

Both of those solutions happen to be right at the top of our priority list and both are currently under heavy development. Also, there are a few minor usability enhancements that will probably soon be made to the way Rx are selected and created. Will we beat the Sept 1 deadline? Possibly, but it's hard to tell. You might have to add some of that info manually to the printed Rx's coming from Open Dental, which I can't imagine being too burdensome.

[jordansparks]

In version 5.9 (not released yet), we have finished moving Rx printing over to the sheets framework. So in 5.9, you will be able to fully customize printed Rx's. This means you can easily put the DPS on your prescriptions even though we don't have a field for it.

[wjstarck]

Thanks.