CONCORD - New Hampshire state government is leading by example in meeting Gov. John Lynch’s goal of ensuring that all health care providers have the capability to prescribe medications electronically.

Gov. Lynch announced today that beginning tomorrow, providers will be able to access New Hampshire Medicaid patients’ eligibility, formulary information and drug histories electronically.

“Moving to electronic prescriptions is an important step forward in improving health care efficiency, controlling costs, reducing medical errors and increasing patient safety,” Gov. Lynch said. “We are making real progress in ensuring all of our health care providers have the capability of prescribing medications electronically and I am pleased that our state government is leading by example.”

E-prescribing allows prescribers and pharmacists to access information about prescription formularies, the medication history of patients whose providers write electronic prescriptions, warns of adverse drug effects such as allergies, and allows for electronic transactions between health care providers and pharmacies.

“There are so many potential benefits of e-prescribing, one of the most important is how this will help improve patient safety by reducing the risk of medication errors,” said Health and Human Services Commissioner Nicholas Toumpas.

Each year, more than 3 billion prescriptions are written nationally - with four out of five patients taking more than one prescription and one in three taking more than five prescriptions. There are more than 10,000 prescription medications on the market and with more than 300,000 over-the-counter medications, there are millions of possible drug and dosage combinations. According to the New England Journal of Medicine, in an outpatient setting, 25 percent of all patients experienced a medical prescription error, 13 percent of which were very serious.

“The availability of e-prescribing is going to improve the quality of care our Medicaid clients receive,” said Director of the Office of Medicaid and Business Policy Katie Dunn. “Prescription information can be transmitted safely and securely through this system, and will be able to provide pharmacists with access to life-saving information both during emergencies or routine care.”