Introduction
Prescription drugs are the most commonly abused class of drugs besides marijuana and other hard drugs. Approximations by the National Institute of Health imply that at least twenty percent of people in the United States have at one time abused the drugs. Some prescription drugs are addictive particularly when used for reasons they were not prescribed. Abuse of prescribed drugs is also perpetuated by nurses who have on several occasions been caught mishandling Narcotics. Some nurses have been caught misappropriating prescribed drugs by using Phenergan with Benadryl to knock patients out (Grossman, 2005).
At the start of FY 2000, the US Congress approved funding to the US Department of Justice to support the prescription drug monitoring program. Prescription checking programs help in the determination as well as control of diversion and abuse of pharmaceutical. States which have already established prescription monitoring programs can collect and analyze prescription information more effectively than states where such programs do not exist. In States where such programs have not been implemented, prescription information is collected via manual scrutiny of pharmacy files which is a tedious invasive process (Grossman, 2005).
The main reason and aim of Prescription Drug Monitoring Program are to come up with the level of capacity of regulatory as well as law enforcement bodies to be in position to collect and to make a viable analysis of the prescription of data of substances controlled by the pharmaceuticals. The program emphasizes on assisting states that aim at implementing a prescription drug monitoring program. The resources necessary for expansion of existing programs are also available to states with such objectives. Some of the programs objectives include creating a data collection and analysis system especially at the state levels and improving the ability of the existing programs to evaluate and apply the collected data. In addition, the program facilitates the exchange of the already collected prescription data and evaluates the competence and effectiveness of the programs sponsored by the initiative. The programs assist medical experts in preventing drug abusers from getting prescriptions from several doctors.
At the moment 39 states have already implemented the programs. NCSL in partnership with Department of Justice is offering legislators with information regarding the implementation of Prescription Monitoring Programs. Countries that have not yet implemented the programs are in the process of doing so or planning systems to evaluate the prescription as well as the sale of all controlled substances together with drugs. Someone Associates in collaboration with BJA has released an evaluation of the programs to assess the effects they have on supply and abuse of controlled drugs. Some examples of already existing programs include:
Colorado State Drug Monitoring Program
Colorado has an Electronic Prescription Drug Monitoring Program already in place. The program is active and handles all the inquiries from pharmacists and traders of controlled substances. This electronic program which was acceptable by law in 2005 provides a database that has controlled substance recommendations that have been retailed by Colorado pharmacies as well as from non-resident pharmacies that trade controlled substances with Colorado. The database aims to offer objective information to aid practitioners and medical personnel in offering appropriate treatment to their patients. The program assists prescribers as well as pharmacists in collecting information about the patients under their care and ensures that the prescribing and administration of controlled substances is done appropriately. For instance, in case a patient is making use of OxyContin, the prescriber will most likely to be in a position to find out the time when the drug was first prescribed to the patient or if any other practitioners have prescribed the drug to their patient. In addition, the practitioner will have all the information necessary to determine whether the medication is appropriate for the patient.
The program upholds some privacy in that the information gathered is only accessible by authorized people and particularly the pharmacists and prescribers of controlled substances. Patients can access their personal information through a law enforcement official who is supposed to have a court order or subpoena to get the required information. GHS Data Management has been assigned the role of managing the database as well as the gathered information on behalf of the state. (Professional licensing agency, 2009).
Maine’s Prescription Monitoring program
Maine’s Prescription Monitoring program is a program established to avert and detect drug abuse and diversion. It upholds a database of all operations involving controlled substances sold in the State of Maine. This database is accessible to prescribers and dispensers through the net. Clinicians are offering improved healthcare to patients due to the free service in the office of Substance Abuse. The PMP database is the standard tool which medical practitioners are applying to improve the delivery of their services. Patients’ records assist in maintaining consistent and coordinated care while the history of each patient can be monitored with ease. The tool is a helpful addition to the toolkit of the clinicians. It is used in controlling and intervening against abuse and diversion of controlled substances.
The program operates by ensuring that all transactions for restricted substances sold in Maine to be reported for recording to the state government. Pharmacies submit their information to be recorded at least twice per month. The data is then screened and added to the database. The registered users can then log in to the database using the patients’ names or birth dates to access the data (National Bureau of Economic Review, 2004)
Texas Prescription Program
The Texas Prescription Program was established in the early 1980s to replace the manpower which was the only resource available to control diversion of controlled substances. The manpower program was tedious since it required many hours to deal with close to 60,000 practitioners and 5000 pharmacies. Records by the Department survey of pharmacies reveal that the program reduced the number of schedule 11 prescriptions by close to 52% during its first year of implementation. The number of recorded prescriptions continued to reduce until 1990, when the numbers rose again. Inconsistency in figures is attributable to various factors. Due to the implementation of the program, several investigations involving pill mills were resolved to result to recording of fewer invalid prescriptions and reduction of forgery and fraudulent call in prescriptions. The Texas Prescription Program assists in controlling and deterring abuse and diversion of drugs. It is an effective measure that minimizes abuse without necessarily affecting the supply of controlled substances and their appropriate use (Bureau of Justice Assistance, 2007).
Sources of information
Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs source information from their databases which are fed by information from pharmacies and medical practitioners. In many states, pharmacies and medical practitioners including the clinicians are required to provide information are required to submit data regarding all the transactions involving controlled substances to the state governments. The governments then create databases for the maintenance of information. The data can be availed inform of an INSPECT report, one that summarizes data about the drugs prescribed to a patient, the practitioner involved, the dispensing pharmacy and where the patient purchased the drugs. By compiling information concerning controlled substances into a database INSPECT performs two important functions which include maintaining a storage of patient data for healthcare professionals and offering a significant investigative measure for law enforcement (Professional licensing agency, 2009).
Conclusion
The use of electronic drug monitoring programs in the prevention and control of drug abuse and diversion has assisted greatly in the dispensing of medication. Pharmaceutical firms have implemented the electronic programs where computers are used in medical facilities when ordering medications. The electronic controlled programs are effective in the control of prescription drug abuse and diversion which at times leads to addiction. Some nurses can also take advantage of helpless and/or ignorant patients to divert drugs into other application which they were not intended for (Grossman, 2004).
List of References
Bureau of Justice Assistance. (2007). Harold Rogers Prescription Drug Monitoring Program. Web.
Grossman, M. (2005). Individual Behaviors and Substance Use: The Role of Price (NBER) Working. New York: Prentice Hall.
National Bureau of Economic Review. (2004), Professional licensing agency Paper No. 10948. Web.