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Ohio News: Have You Registered for Access to the Prescription Monitoring Program
Published in the August 2006 Ohio State Board of Pharmacy Newsletter
At the time of writing this Newsletter, the Board’s goal was to have the Ohio Automated Rx Reporting System (OARRS) program (the prescription monitoring program or PMP) up and running by August 1, 2006. Registration of pharmacists and prescribers for access to the program was supposed to have started in July 2006. It is just as important for pharmacists to use this program as it is for prescribers. Unfortunately, in other states with monitoring programs that does not seem to be the case. The latest word we have is that around 80% of the requests for data received by the Kentucky All Schedules Prescription Electronic Reporting program come from prescribers while only about 10% come from pharmacists. We are hoping that Ohio will change that statistic. Pharmacists have a unique opportunity to improve patient care by reviewing the information before making a decision about filling or not filling a prescription. All too often, we get telephone calls in the Board office from patients who have been on chronic pain therapy, going to one doctor and one pharmacy, who have been suddenly cut off by a nervous doctor or pharmacist who has no evidence of the patient exhibiting drug seeking behavior, but suddenly gets concerned solely because of the length of therapy or by the dose required. This database will allow the prescribers and pharmacists to get a good idea about the patient’s activities so that an objective decision about the therapy can be made.
Of course, the opposite is true as well. Another reason it is so important for prescribers and pharmacists to use this system was made evident by the results of a recent survey by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The report is titled “Nonmedical Users of Pain Relievers: Characteristics of Recent Initiates” and can be found on the SAMHSA Web site at www.oas.samhsa.gov.
This report points out that “[m]ore persons initiated nonmedical use of narcotic pain relievers in the past year than initiated use of marijuana or cocaine.” Nonmedical use was defined as “the use of prescription-type drugs not prescribed for the respondent by a physician or used only for the experience or feeling they caused.” According to the report, “2.4 million persons ages 12 or older initiated nonmedical use of prescription pain relievers in the 12 months prior to the survey, 2.1 million initiated use of marijuana, and 1 million initiated use of cocaine.”
Some other statistics that are rather sobering include the fact that 48% of those 2.4 million used a hydrocodone-containing product, 34.3% used a propoxyphene product or acetaminophen with codeine, and 20% used an oxycodone/acetaminophen product. Seventy-four percent of these first-time nonmedical users had used another illicit drug (marijuana, heroin, etc) before using the pain relievers.
Health care professionals need to do their part to ensure that the patients who have a legitimate need for pain medications receive them as expeditiously as possible, but there is also a need to limit the diversion of these substances for nonmedical or illicit purposes. Utilizing this database will be one way for health care professionals to obtain some additional information to help them make informed decisions about their patients’ therapy.
