A lack of enforcement of California's prescription drug monitoring database has prevented the system from curbing the state's growing prescription drug abuse problem, according to a New York Times report.
Unlike in Arizona and Utah, enrollment in California's database is optional and rarely used by the healthcare professionals it is intended for. Of more than 30,000 physicians and pharmacists in the Bay Area, 86 are signed up to use the system, according to the report. Statewide, 282 pharmacists and 1,559 physicians, of more than 165,000, enrolled in the program during its first year. The present enrollment consists of 1,216 pharmacists and 6,755 physicians, the report said.
"[The database is] hit or miss," said Richard Gracer, MD, who runs the pain management clinic Gracer Medical Group in San Ramon. "Once in a while it's slow. Sometimes it gives the wrong answers. If the amount of doctors who should be using it signed up, it would probably die right away."
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Unlike in Arizona and Utah, enrollment in California's database is optional and rarely used by the healthcare professionals it is intended for. Of more than 30,000 physicians and pharmacists in the Bay Area, 86 are signed up to use the system, according to the report. Statewide, 282 pharmacists and 1,559 physicians, of more than 165,000, enrolled in the program during its first year. The present enrollment consists of 1,216 pharmacists and 6,755 physicians, the report said.
"[The database is] hit or miss," said Richard Gracer, MD, who runs the pain management clinic Gracer Medical Group in San Ramon. "Once in a while it's slow. Sometimes it gives the wrong answers. If the amount of doctors who should be using it signed up, it would probably die right away."
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