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The audit found that while most people made good use of the system, the program needs legal, enforcement, and data collection tweaks to be more effective.
Launched in 2008, the monitoring program seeks to reduce the number of drug overdoses by tracking controlled substances.
That hasn't happened.
While Connecticut has seen a reduction in opioids dispensed over the last several years, the audit noted, the number of opioid-related drug overdoses has increased. In 2019, the rate of overdose deaths involving controlled substances spiked by 18 percent, according to the auditor.
The auditor was critical of the program because it:
- Cannot confirm whether all healthcare practitioners are registered with the system;
- Does not enforce or track whether healthcare providers performed mandatory lookups in the monitoring system;
- Inadequately monitors some dispenser notification requirements;
- Does not monitor whether dispensers correct errors uploaded to the system;
- Lacks a formal enforcement strategy - investigations are largely driven by complaints;
- Has management that does not have enough oversight of its own database;
- Data being collected is not enough to identify patterns of possible misuse;
- Does not require pharmacies to look up patient prescription history - a move that could further reduce drug abuse;
- Needs better mechanisms for training and collecting feedback.
“We found that PMP [the Prescription Monitoring Program] works fairly well in providing an individual patient history of controlled substance prescribing use,” the report stated. “However, the Connecticut Prescription Monitoring and Reporting System appears to be missing information that could provide a more accurate picture.”
The Connecticut Persecritopn Monitoring Program, under the Department of Consumer Protection, was established in 2006. It mandates pharmacies, medical dispensaries, and prescribers to track the who, what, where, when, and why of prescriptions and put that information into a centralized database. It is believed that tracking this information can reduce controlled substance misuse and abuse, avoiding drug overdoses and deaths. The system flags when a patient or provider may be over-involved with one medication or another.
More than 26,000 prescribers were surveyed in 2019 for the report. Most said that the system is useful, but 25 percent of respondents said they never consulted the Connecticut Prescription Monitoring and Reporting System.
The auditor’s department has made 21 recommendations to improve the program.
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