Source: Ohio Board of Pharmacy
On April 21, 2015, State of Ohio Board of Pharmacy Executive Director Steven W. Schierholt, Esq., announced that the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) has begun daily reporting of all prescription controlled substances dispensed from their Ohio facilities to the Ohio Automated Rx Reporting System (OARRS). By reporting this information, clinicians treating veterans outside of the Ohio VHA system will now have access to comprehensive data, which shows the dispensing of prescription medicine to their patients.
“This marks a major step toward improving health care and preventing the adverse effects of overlapping drug therapy of veterans receiving treatment outside of VHA facilities,” says State of Ohio Board of Pharmacy Executive Director Steven W. Schierholt. “Adding VHA prescription history data to that collected by OARRS will provide a more complete picture of a veteran’s use of prescribed medicine, allowing medical providers the ability to make better clinical decisions,” said Schierholt.
Established in 2006, OARRS is the only statewide database that collects information on all prescriptions for controlled substances that are dispensed by pharmacies and personally furnished by licensed prescribers in Ohio. OARRS data is available to prescribers when they treat patients, pharmacists when presented with prescriptions from patients and law enforcement officers only during active investigations.
For more information on OARRS, please visit: www.ohiopmp.gov/