Florida Pharmacists Begin Submitting Data to State's PMP

September 8, 2011 11:22 AM Topics: Prescription monitoring program

On September 1, 2011, pharmacists began submitting data to the Florida Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PMP), a program implemented to fight the epidemic of prescription drug abuse and diversion in the state. Florida’s law requires that pharmacists submit applicable controlled substance prescription data to the state’s PMP weekly. As reported by Florida’s WFTV news, the PMP will allow authorized health care providers to access PMP data beginning October 2011. As explained on the program’s Web site, the state’s PMP will help protect patient safety by assisting authorized Florida health care providers in determining:

• The potential for adverse drug reactions
• The best possible therapeutic therapy for the patient
• Patient compliance with practitioner’s guidance
• Whether there are duplicative prescriptions during the same time period
• Whether the patient is “doctor shopping” (ie, seeing multiple physicians within the past 30 days and not telling them they already have a prescription for the same controlled substance(s))
• The potential for drug to drug or drug to allergy interactions