Office of Borough President James P. Molinaro
Staten Island, New York
B.P. Molinaro calls for computerized registry allowing pharmacies to track patients to prescriptions
Centralized database could help curb alarming increase in prescription drug abus.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – Borough President James P. Molinaro today announced that he is planning a roundtable discussion on prescription drug abuse to create a centralized, computerized registry that would allow doctors and pharmacies to track patients to their prescriptions.
“Just as a police officer can run a check on a license plate to see if the motorist has a record, a doctor or pharmacist should have a computer database to check the history of a patient who wants a prescription or submits one at a drug store to be filled,” said Molinaro, who last spring co-sponsored a town hall meeting with the North Central Kiwanis Club on prescription drug awareness.
“Prescription drug abuse has become a crisis in our Borough, there’s no question about it,” Molinaro added. “Countless Staten Island teenagers and young adults are using and getting hooked on prescription drugs, which are very easily obtainable.
“Some kids get the drugs from their own parents’ medicine cabinets, then sell whatever they don’t use to their friends and classmates,” Molinaro continued. “This must be stopped, and combating prescription fraud is one way to curb the alarming increase in the illegal use of these drugs.
“The doctor or pharmacist should be able to log in the patient’s name and prescription in a computer database to see if any red flags pop up – did the person already get that prescription or fill it that day or that week?” Molinaro said.
“A person can only take so many pills a day, so the question arises – what is this person doing with all these pills? “ Molinaro added. “Is this person ‘doctor-shopping’ for prescriptions?
“A centralized, computerized registry that would allow doctors and pharmacies to track patients to their prescriptions would be a much-needed check on the whole system that could slow the growth of this epidemic,” Molinaro concluded.
May 25, 2010