Hospitals must prescribe electronically by October

According to the new regulations, before October 1, all national hospitals must implement electronic prescriptions; other medical examination and treatment facilities must be done before January 1, 2026.

After many postponements, the Ministry of Health has just issued Circular No. 26/2025/TT-BYT regulating prescriptions and the prescription of pharmaceuticals and biological products in outpatient treatment at medical examination and treatment facilities. structured, the Ministry of Health "finalized" the deadline for medical examination and treatment facilities organized as hospitals to implement electronic prescriptions before October 1; all other medical examination and treatment facilities must also implement it from January 1, 2026.

An electronic prescription is understood to be created, displayed, signed, shared, and stored electronically, with the same legal value as a paper prescription.

Electronic prescriptions are part of electronic medical records. Many hospitals still prescribe handwritten medications, and many doctors' handwritings still "puzzle" patients. Some hospitals have even implemented electronic medical records but still use paper medical records in parallel, and prescribe outpatient medications in handwritten medical records.

Not only prescribing electronic drugs, Xanh Pon General Hospital ( Hanoi ) also deploys digital signatures of patients on prescriptions.

According to regulations of the Ministry of Health , from July 1, medical examination and treatment facilities are responsible for sending electronic prescriptions to the National Prescription System immediately after completing the examination and treatment process for outpatients or inpatients.

According to Mr. Vuong Anh Duong, Deputy Director of the Department of Medical Examination and Treatment Management (Ministry of Health), when implementing electronic prescriptions, the prescription and drug sales systems will be connected. Patients who buy drugs will be controlled according to the prescriptions in the system. Which prescriptions are sold to where, which drugs are sold differently from the prescription - all can be tracked. This is a huge step forward in controlling the sale of drugs without prescriptions, especially antibiotics.

The interconnection between the Electronic Prescription System and the National Drug Administration System is one of the key solutions to improve the effectiveness of drug use monitoring. When all prescriptions are updated synchronously, the agency management can promptly detect and handle drug abuse, prescription errors or sale of drugs without prescription.

For people, using QR codes on electronic prescriptions makes it easy to look up information about the drug, dosage, instructions for use, and treatment history. This is a useful tool that helps patients proactively monitor their medication use, contributing to increased transparency and safety in drug use.

Source: https://cand.com.vn/y-te/truoc-thang-10-cac-benh-vien-phai-ke-don-thuoc-dien-tu-i773829/