Why reinvent the wheel. The Star TPS800 printer is designed to thermally print these prescriptions to perfectly designed 4" by 6" paper that is usually the standard. They are tamper proof and, generally, accepted in all 50 states. Once set up correctly, you can print PERFECT scripts all day long. it is awesome to see two kids with four different Focalin XRs and print them off in less than two minutes. When we wrote them out, I would have made at least two errors, it would have taken me over five minutes, and the pharmacy would not have been able to read at least one.
And, the support guy for TPS800 is awesome. You can even get a locked version for the rooms so that patients can't take the rolls of scripts from your rooms. But, that isn't a problem for us as we keep the printer behind the front desk. I only print so many controlled substances. I usually walk the patient down the hall anyway, and the receptionist always has the scripts right on the counter ready for me to sign. The printer is right by her desk.
You calculated correctly. The paper is 2.4 cents per page, which is less than what we were paying for the script pads we had to pay for. We never got them here for free.
For regular scripts, I still print them out on an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper for about a penny. But, I fax most scripts. So, usually it is:
1. Fax all scripts that aren't controlled.
2. Print scripts to patients that are self pay or insured if they prefer a hard copy rather than a fax.
3. Print scripts for drugs such as Paregoric, Vicodin, Tylenol with codeine, Lomotil, etc., sign them, then fax them. You can't fax those without a signature here except for one drug store.
4. Print all scripts to the TPS800 thermal printer for CIIs.
5. When a Medicaid patient wants a hard copy, I will print to a tamper proof script on the TPS800.
We RARELY call in prescriptions.
The TPS800 is one of the best purchases I have ever made. Configuration on the printer itself can be a bit daunting, but once it is done, you never have to do it again.
The only frustrating thing is that you can't switch back and forth between formats in AC or to two different print drivers. I tried, but I wasn't able to make it work perfectly. So, you are unable to print four scripts to a page as before.
