Enhancement of Ohio Prescription Drug Monitoring Program

Since the beginning of FY 2002, Congress has appropriated funding to the U.S. Department of Justice to support the Harold Rogers Prescription Drug Monitoring Program. Prescription drug monitoring programs enhance the capacity of regulatory and law enforcement agencies to collect and analyze controlled substance prescription data through a centralized database administered by an authorized state agency. These programs are designed to help prevent and detect the diversion and abuse of pharmaceutical controlled substances, particularly at the retail level where no other automated information collection system exists.

States that have implemented prescription drug monitoring programs have the capability of collecting and analyzing prescription data much more efficiently than states without such programs, where the collection of prescription information requires the manual review of pharmacy files which is a very time consuming and invasive process. The increased efficiency of prescription drug monitoring programs allows for the early detection of abuse trends and possible sources of diversion.

The Ohio State Board of Pharmacy operates the state's prescription drug monitoring program that has been fully operational since October 2006. The Board will enhance the monitoring program by developing an electronic method to obtain prescription drug data from other states and act as a regional or national clearinghouse to electronically transfer information between states. This initiative will complement the overall drug strategy of states by creating a method for clients to efficiently access prescription drug information maintained in other state systems and enhance the process for identifying drug abusers, doctor shoppers, and drug traffickers. The Board will collaborate with the IJIS Institute and its prescription monitoring committee as well as monitoring program staff in other states to develop electronic interoperability for information sharing. Once the system is operational, the program will collect statistical and demographic data on each request transferred through the clearinghouse to determine how other states are utilizing the services, how often requests are transferred, and whether the transfer is successful. State users will be surveyed for feedback and suggested improvements to the system.

CA/NCF