Prescription Monitoring Program: A promising start in Washington

By Chris Baumgartner, Program Director

Drug overdose deaths, due mostly to the misuse or abuse of prescription drugs, are the leading cause of accidental death in Washington. In response, the Washington State Department of Health recently established several prevention initiatives including a Prescription Monitoring Program.

The program collects information on the purchases of pain medications and other potentially dangerous medicines from pharmacies and health care providers. The information is used to help reduce abuse and pro-mote patient safety.

We began collecting data in October 2011, and since then the program is averaging more than 900,000 records per month. The system now holds more than 14 million records. The top 10 drugs (by generic name) collected by our system are: ...see attached for full article.