Since January 2024, the electronic prescription has been mandatory for cash patients, yet many pink paper prescriptions are still being issued. “By now, approximately 75% of medications are prescribed electronically and in North Rhine-Westphalia, and in Germany, 528.7 million e-prescriptions have been redeemed” the North Rhine-Westphalian Pharmacists’ Association reported to the “Rheinische Post” (Friday edition) in response to a query.
“Papier prescriptions remain an important pillar for prescriptions, especially in emergency services or when the electronic prescription cannot be issued due to IT system failures.” The association noted, “The Gematik reports IT infrastructure problems almost daily.”
The Gematik, however, denied this, stating, “We cannot confirm such a scale of disruptions, but we are in close exchange with the various service providers to further optimize the stability of the telematics infrastructure.”
There are three ways to transfer the e-prescription – and one is mainly used: 90% of the e-prescription is redeemed with the electronic health card in the pharmacy, said Thomas Preis, head of the North Rhine-Westphalian Pharmacists’ Association, to the newspaper. In 8% of cases, patients bring the paper print with a QR code from the practice to the pharmacy. And only 2% of e-prescriptions are redeemed through the health insurance apps, Gematik, or pharmacies. “You know this from other applications on your own smartphone, too. People tend to avoid the complicated download of an app” Preis said.