The Ministry of Health has implemented the replacement of the current sealed coupon for medicines with a digital code in the 300 pharmacies in the province of Castellona pioneering initiative in Spain that will be extended to pharmacies in Valence And Alicante before the end of the year. Thus, this unique digital code will constitute the support element for the delivery and invoicing of medicines financed in the Valencian Community.
The Minister of Health, Marciano Gomezannounced the measure today at the headquarters of the College of Pharmacists of Castellón and stated that “the province of Castellón and the Valencian Community are the protagonists of a historic step that will allow pharmacy offices, not only to reduce the administrative burden “But it will also allow We will increase the traceability of the medicine, which will translate into greater patient safety.”
In this regard, the Minister explained the benefits of traceability and stressed that thanks to digital code “You will know at all times where it is and where the box of each medication is.” “This way, if an alert occurs regarding a specific container, we can know which patient has taken it and be able to react immediately, thus providing greater safety to the patient,” he continued.
In this sense, he added that the cutting of the seal coupon “is a system that is currently obsolete, and in the Valencian Community we are fully prepared and we have the technological means to digitize this process, we are the first community in Spain to carry out this pharmaceutical digital transformation.
Gómez explained that “the incorporation of this unique digital identification code as proof of dispensing in the billing of financed medicines will also allow for debureaucratization and reduction of inefficient and disproportionate administrative burdens in pharmacies, as well as the commitment of this department to sustainability.” environmental and digital transformation.
On the other hand, the advise He wanted to thank the professional associations for their collaboration in launching this initiative and stressed that “pharmacists are acquiring an important role by becoming health agents, collaborating actively and proactively with the Valencian public health system.”
Development and expansion
In concrete terms, since last July, the cutting of the seal coupon and the reading of the unique code have coexisted in the 300 pharmacies in the province of Castellon; a test which confirmed the proper functioning of the unique digital code for invoicing medicines and which will avoid the printing of 4.9 million justification sheets and the cutting of 14 million sealed coupons.
Therefore, from today, pharmacies in Castellón will only use the unique code as a support element for dispensing and billing.
The Ministry of Health is working so that from October 1, pharmacies in the provinces of Alicante and Valencia begin working to make the coupon-cut compatible with the electronic code system, with the aim of replacing it completely before the end of the year.
The Minister of Health, Marciano Gomezannounced the measure today at the headquarters of the College of Pharmacists of Castellón during an event attended by the mayor of Castellón, Begoña Carrascoand the president of the Provincial Council of Castellón, Marta Barrachina, as well as the president of the College of Pharmacists of Castellón, Rosa Arnau.
Furthermore, “the integration of this unique digital identification code as proof of dispensing in the billing of financed medicines will help to debureaucratize and reduce inefficient and disproportionate administrative burdens in pharmacies, and the commitment of this Ministry to environmental sustainability and digital transformation.
More than 131 million containers per year
During 2023, pharmacies dispensed 131 million containers of medicines included in the pharmaceutical offer of the National Health System, “which means that, for each container, the pharmacist must cut out the sealed coupon and stick it on a sheet to justify” the dispensing and billing of the medicine. A procedure that, if digitized, saves time and costs. “We are providing 21st century solutions to 21st century problems,” he said. Marciano Gomez.
Likewise, the cost of the process of invoicing the containers issued is estimated at 4.7 million euros per year for pharmacies in the Valencian Community (0.6 million euros for those in Castellón). This cost in economic resources and professional time will be avoided thanks to this pioneering initiative.
In total, thanks to the new digital code, the printing of 48.6 million justification sheets and the cutting of 117.9 million sealed coupons in pharmacies throughout the Valencian Community will be avoided.
In this sense, the elimination of the seal coupon will lead to a reduction in direct costs of more than 500,000 euros per year for the Valencian Generality. In addition, it will increase the safety and traceability of medicines delivered to citizens of the Valencian Community.
Likewise, it must be taken into account that all the information elements contained in the seal coupon were developed in the 1960s, at a time when the technological support was not available to identify certain situations relevant to the dispensing of financed medicines.
On the contrary, currently this information is already included in the electronic prescription of the Valencian Community and in the interoperability system of electronic prescriptions of the National Health System. In addition, it also integrates the exhaustive reading, verification and deactivation of each container of medicine distributed in pharmacies, with the capture of the unique digital identification code included in the DataMatrix code of the medicine packaging.
With this in mind, the Central Committee for Pharmaceutical Assistance of the Valencian Community, a collegiate body made up of representatives of the pharmaceutical offices and the Valencian Health Administration, is working on the new pharmaceutical agreement and establishing the new framework for collaboration, with the aim of guaranteeing citizens the quality and safety of the pharmaceutical offer, as well as access to medicines and the qualified professional services of pharmacists in the best conditions.
The new agreement, among other aspects, includes the replacement of the sealed coupon as an element justifying the issuance of an electronic prescription from the National Health System, within the framework of the billing of the Valencian Community.
