Attorney General Calls for Rx Drug Monitoring System To Prevent Abuse
California Attorney General Jerry Brown (D) said he plans to upgrade the state's prescription drug monitoring system to allow health practitioners to check patients' histories before prescribing potentially dangerous drugs, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Brown said, "Doctors and pharmacies can instantly check out if the patient before them is legitimate or an abuser," adding that a new monitoring system will put the state "in a better position to control illegal diversion."
Physicians and pharmacists can fax or mail requests for a patient's prescription history from a database maintained by the attorney general's office. However, the Times reports that such requests can take weeks to process.
Bob Pack, whose two children were killed by a woman abusing prescription drugs, is offering to raise $3 million to build and support a computer system for three years that would allow physicians and prescribers to instantaneously check patient prescription records (Reiterman, Los Angeles Times, 5/18).