"Together, we are setting a goal of making New Hampshire the first state in the nation where all of our health care providers are able to prescribe medication electronically - an innovation that will improve health care quality and help save lives, while at the same time reducing health care costs and improving the efficiency of our healthcare system," Gov. Lynch said.

The plan calls for all primary care providers to have the ability to prescribe prescriptions electronically by October 2007 and for all health care clinicians in New Hampshire to have the ability to e-prescribe by October 2008.

"This is an aggressive goal, but one I believe we will meet because the people who can make it happen - the New Hampshire Hospital Association, the New Hampshire Medical Society, New Hampshire's Pharmacists and New Hampshire's major insurers - have all joined together through the Citizens Health Initiative to develop and endorse this plan," Gov. Lynch said.

In addition, another Citizens Health Initiative will provide an additional incentive for health care providers to make the switch to e-prescribing.

The Citizens Health Initiative has been working with New Hampshire's health insurance providers to develop common "pay-for-performance" standards - standards that reward health care providers for meeting benchmarks of high quality care.

"While we are still finalizing all the standards, one common pay-for-performance standard will be the use of electronic medical records and e-prescribing - giving health care providers another incentive to make the switch," Gov. Lynch said.

E-prescribing can be done with something as simple as a Blackberry. Although some practices will hopefully use this initiative to jumpstart an investment in electronic medical records, another effort of a Citizens Health Initiative that recently won a major national grant.

In July, the Institute of Medicine released a study estimating that problems with the prescription drug system - uncertainty about what the doctor prescribed, an inappropriate medication for the patient, wrong dosages or just the wrong drug - cost the health care system $77 billion a year nationally.

If looked at on a per-capita basis that could mean up to $300 million a year in costs in New Hampshire - for new prescriptions, repeat doctor visits, lost time at doctors' offices and pharmacies, and in hospital admissions because of adverse drug reactions.

The Institute of Medicine estimates that 7,000 patients nationally - or up to 30 per capita in New Hampshire - die each year as the result of adverse drug reactions. And 1.4 percent of hospital admissions every year are the result of adverse drug reactions. That equates to up to 1,700 hospital admissions in New Hampshire - at an average cost of $10,000 per patient.

To address these serious issues, the Institute of Medicine recommended health care providers move to sending prescriptions electronically, which allows easier checks of appropriate drugs, doses drug interactions, decreases confusion about what the written prescription says, and saves doctors, pharmacists, and patients time and money. National studies indicate that the use of e-prescribing saves pharmacies and doctors' offices up to two hours a day.

"Modernizing our prescription drug system will save lives and improve the health of our citizens. It will also help control costs," Gov. Lynch said.

Gov. Lynch Gov. Lynch created the Citizens Health Initiative to bring together health care providers, insurers, business, consumers, workers and state officials to act to improve health care quality, increase access to health care, and control the growth in health care costs in New Hampshire.