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Project Profile : Department of Justice - Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP)

			Project Profile - DOJ - PDMP - (.PDF 120KB)

The Challenge

Established in 1927, the California Department of Justice (DOJ) Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement (BNE) is the oldest narcotic enforcement bureau in the United States. BNE programs target major drug dealers, violent career criminals, clandestine drug manufacturers, and violators of prescription drug laws. Diversion of controlled substances is recognized as a serious problem throughout the country. Prescription drug abuse comprises approximately 30% of all drug abuse in the US; the fourth most abused drug after alcohol, tobacco and marijuana. Non-medical use of pharmaceuticals accounted for more than 500,000 emergency room visits in one year in California alone, an enormous drain on the state’s health care system.

States have found that prescription monitoring programs are among the most effective tools available to identify and prevent drug diversion for enhanced public safety. There are over 72 million prescription transactions (schedule II-IV) annually. Each year DOJ receives over 60,000 patient activity requests related to prescription drugs. Access to prescription monitoring data has historically been managed through fax and manual processes which can take one to seven days for processing and transmittal.

The Solution

DOJ partnered with Delegata for their knowledge of enterprise architecture, web-service technologies, and project management best practices. Delegata architected the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) application and assisted DOJ with configuration, installation, testing, deployment, and knowledge transfer.

The PDMP is a valuable investigative, preventive, and educational real-time tool for law enforcement, regulatory boards, educational researchers, and the healthcare community. It enables authorized users to quickly review controlled substance information online in an effort to identify and deter drug abuse and diversion through accurate and rapid tracking of Schedule II through IV controlled substances. PDMP aims to reduce pharmaceutical drug diversion without affecting legitimate medical practice or patient care.

The Benefits

Business Benefits - The time required to provide PDMP data to endusers is reduced dramatically as results are now available online in seconds compared to the previous fax and manual processes which took one to seven days. Facilitating real-time access to PDMP data reduces doctor shopping, decreases drug diversion, and reduces the levels of drug abuse - ultimately decreasing the associated cost to the citizenry while increasing public safety.

Technical Benefits – The PDMP provides electronic access to prescription data that is transmitted through secured means (compliant with HIPAA and other security standards) to three disparate domains – law enforcement and justice (DOJ’s Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement), regulatory boards, and public health care (Practitioners and Pharmacists). The use of web service technologies allows easy integration with larger institutions (Hospitals, Emergency Care Units, etc.) and eventually with other states. The application also removes the need for paper and manual collection of theft/losses of prescriptions through the electronic data entry form.

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