Ohio Academy of Family Physicians President Don Mack, MD, and Executive Vice President Ann Spicer will be meeting A.J. Groeber, executive director of the State Medical Board of Ohio (SMBO), and Steven W. Schierholt, executive director of the State of Ohio Board of Pharmacy (SOBP), on Wednesday, May 23, to discuss the threatening emails that physicians continue to receive about alleged missing Ohio Automated Rx Reporting System (OARRS) checks.
The OAFP is seeking examples of instances where physicians received these emails in error. If you have examples of errors contained within these “Dear Licensee” emails, please email them to the OAFP by Tuesday, May 22. We will utilize them in our meeting with the SMBO and the SOBP.
In his letter requesting the meeting Dr. Mack stated, “Every time a new batch of these emails goes out, our office receives complaints from members about the lack of specificity of the emails – from the “Dear Licensee” salutation and wide range of alleged missed checks (9 misses clearly being more serious than 1 miss) to the lack of patient information provided to allow the prescriber to easily check to see if the OARRS check was actually missed or if it is a result of bad data received from the SOBP. The emails are frustrating, insulting, and highhanded at best. As one email received by our office states, ‘Does the board not owe us exact data when they make these accusations?’”
The letter went on to state, “Because of the lack of specific patient information provided in these emails to prescribers, the physician has to spend an incredible amount of time trying to identify if/how a check may have been missed. It is up to the physician to find errors in the OARRS report and notify the SMBO in hopes of getting the SOBP to correct the errors. This time consuming process could be eliminated if data gleaned were authenticated prior to being sent to prescribers. At the very least, the time spent by the physician in this ‘looking for a needle in a haystack’ exercise could be streamlined if only a specific list of patients not checked was provided.”
The letter ties this imposition on physicians to physician burnout. Physician burnout caused by administrative burdens imposed by governmental agencies is real. While our members wish to fully comply with state laws and regulations, these accusatory, non-specific emails are just another contributor to the vast problem of physician burnout.
In his letter Dr. Mack suggests a more team-oriented approach to accomplish the Kasich administration’s prescribing goals. “If you are truly interested in helping physicians identify missed checks and cleaning up errors in OARRS reporting data, then work with us collaboratively, by giving us specific patient information, so that we can more easily determine whether missed checks are valid.”
Dr. Mack’s letter requested a meeting to discuss and concluded with the comment, “We continue to be very disappointed in the approach taken with regard to accusations about missing OARRS checks. Less accusatory behavior and more helpful team-based methodology would foster better collaboration toward achieving goals.”
Thank you for advocating for the Family Physicians of Ohio on this issue. We are trying our best to comply. All the comments and suggestions you make are spot-on!
In addition to discussing the vague letters sent to physicians, please address :
If physicians are permitted to give refills for Schedule IV meds, why do we have do run an OARRS every 3 months even though legally they are able to have a full 6 months without a new prescription? This seems like a punishment to the physician who is legally prescribing for that patient yet has to run an OARRS again during the therapeutic course.