Despite concerns expressed by the Ohio Academy of Family Physicians, the State Medical Board of Ohio (SMBO) plans to continue to notify licensees who fail to check the Ohio Automated RX Reporting System (OARRS) before prescribing an opioid or benzodiazepine according to monthly data reports mined from OARRS by the State of Ohio Board of Pharmacy (SOBP). The OAFP continues to point out inaccuracies with the data mined and to complain that notification to licensees fails to tell them specifically what they are doing wrong leaving it to the prescriber to try to figure out.
- 204 Drug Enforcement Administration numbers have been added to OARRS accounts
- A total of 1,814 accounts have been created
- 254 new advanced practice registered nurse (APRN) accounts have been created
- 574 new DO/MD/DDS accounts have been created
- 49 new physician assistant accounts have been created
- 937 new Prescriber Delegate accounts have been created
- The number of OARRS requests have increased by 12,768 requests per weekday (from 83,544 per weekday to 96,312).
The SMBO also claims that month-to-month improvement has been substantial: the initial August report showed 45 individuals who failed to check 200+ times, by October that number had decreased to just 15 individuals.
According to the SMBO, feedback from licensees has been valuable as it has helped identify gaps in training, education, and functionality of OARRS. In a statement, the SMBO says it takes all these comments seriously and will incorporate that information into new OARRS education modules and OARRS software updates anticipated this spring.
The SMBO December 2016 newsletter to licensees states, “Thank you for your continued effort to assist in the fight against opioid abuse. Collectively, we will save lives through effective OARRS use and compliance.”
The OAFP will be meeting with the SOBP and the SMBO on Wednesday, December 7, to discuss problems with the data collection and dissemination process. The OAFP has complained that notifications do not pinpoint the patients who are missing OARRS checks, nor do they exclude physicians who do not have to check OARRS per statutory exceptions. Unofficially, the SOBP seems to think that there might be a possible fix to pinpointing the patients, but there seems to be no fix available at this time to address the exceptions issue.
Watch future editions of the Weekly Family Medicine Update and check the OAFP website for updates.