10 highest, lowest ranked states enabled for electronic prescription of controlled substances

by Akanksha Jayanthi, Beckers Hospital Review, August 17, 2016 (excerpt)

…As the healthcare industry seeks ways to address the growing opioid epidemic, states are turning to electronic prescriptions and prescription drug monitoring programs to keep better track of prescriptions for controlled substances. In 2015, health information network Surescripts facilitated 12.8 million electronic prescriptions of controlled substances, a 667 percent increase from the previous year.

Nationwide, about 6 percent of controlled substances are prescribed electronically, 5.7 percent of prescribers are able to electronically submit prescriptions for controlled substances and 80.6 percent of pharmacies can receive such prescriptions, according to Surescripts' 2015 National Progress Report.

However, a state-by-state breakdown reveals significant variation in states enabled for EPCS. States range from less than 1 percent of controlled substances being prescribed electronically to close to 38 percent, according to the report….

read … Beckers Hospital Review

SS: Hawaii is dead last with only 0.8% of opioid prescribers electronically enabled and only 1.12% of transactions handled by electronic means.

Link: Surescripts National Progress Report

SA: Hawaii ranks last in a report of states using electronically filed prescriptions to combat opioid abuse