Thermal Printers Installed for Tamper-Proof Prescriptions
The Centers for Medicaid Services regulations mandate that all Medicaid/Mass Health patients have their inpatient discharge prescriptions printed on tamper-proof paper as of October. If the discharge prescriptions are not printed on this tamper-proof paper, pharmacies will not fill them.
Thermal printers have been installed on all non-ICU inpatient pods in Shapiro, Tower and CWN, and in the ED and PACU. These printers also are in BWH procedural areas, including Interventional Radiology, Cardiovascular Recovery, Dialysis and Endoscopy. All providers are expected to print all discharge prescriptions from these thermal printers regardless of the patient’s insurance status. The prescription paper in the printers is locked and maintained by operations supervisors. If the thermal printer in a particular area is broken or out of paper, the user can send the prescriptions to the backup thermal printer in an adjacent clinical area.
Conventional printers will continue to be used for printing prescriptions in outpatient practices. However, special tamper-proof paper with the BWH logo will need to be used and has been made available in each outpatient practice.
If you have any questions regarding the printing of prescriptions, please call the BWH help desk.