Prescription Drug Monitoring Systems: Identifying Drug Abuse
There’s an ongoing issue that has plaguing pharmacists, doctors and patients alike: the problem of monitoring drug prescriptions for safety. In most places, making sure that patients are not abusing prescriptions, that doctors are not over-prescribing medications and that pharmacists are not incorrectly filling prescriptions or allowing a patient to walk away with conflicting prescriptions from different doctors is a problem that goes unchecked. But slowly, that has started to change.
Problems with Drug Prescription
There are a number of problems that could occur with prescription drugs. If you are prescribed more than one drug and especially if you get prescriptions from more than one doctor, a specialist or an emergency room doctor, for example, as well as a primary care physician, then there is a risk that the medications will interact negatively.
Another issue is when people have a prescription for an opiate painkiller to which they are addicted and try to supplement that prescription with more of the same or equivalent opiates by going through another doctor and pharmacist. Without monitoring, you could take a deadly overdose of opiate prescription drugs.
A New Prescription Drug Monitoring System in Vermont
According to the Burlington Free Press, the new Vermont Prescription Drug Monitoring System is the state’s latest way of tackling this nationwide problem. It is the 38th state to enact this kind of legislature and monitoring. Specifically, the new prescription drug monitoring system tracks the prescription and dispersion of controlled substances like opiate painkillers. Why these? Because though you may mix other drugs with a harmful result, the problem of abuse of prescriptions to sell to others or to feed a personal addiction is so dangerous and rampant a practice that it was the necessary first step in prescription drug monitoring.
How Prescription Drug Monitoring Works
Well, the Vermont Department of Health has come up with a prescription drug monitoring system that, according to Burlington Free Press, “collects a standard set of information on each prescription of a controlled substance.” Of course, a controlled substance is any prescription regulated by the government, like Vicodin, OxyContin, Percocet and Percodan, Lortab and Lorcet, Fentanyl, et cetera. With the information, they create a database that doctors and pharmacists can access statewide so that those who are abusing their prescriptions can be easily identified.
How It’s Working So Far
So far, so good. Every seven days, pharmacies in Vermont are required to upload all their data on controlled prescriptions and since the middle of January, there have been about 350,000 records uploaded to the system.
Is there a system like this in your state? Have you been affected by it in any way? Do you think it will work?
Tags: prescription drug abuse, Prescription Drug Addiction, prescription drug rehab
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