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Commonwealth Database Being Used to Fight Drug Abuse
Information provided by the Kentucky Cabinet for
Health Services
A recent General
Accounting Office report highlighted a technology success story in Kentucky.
Approximately 1,300 pharmacies across the state -- most of them electronically
-- report all controlled substances they dispense to a state-operated
database to make sure people are not abusing drugs in Kentucky.
The Kentucky All Schedule Prescription Electronic Reporting program,
known as KASPER, began operating in 1999. It was developed to assist
physicians, pharmacists and law enforcement to help fight "doctor
shopping" - when patients go from doctor to doctor illegally seeking
controlled substances.
The program is operated by the Drug Enforcement and Professional Practices
Branch in the Kentucky Department for Public Health. Under KASPER, pharmacists
must report all controlled substances within 16 days of the day the
drug was given to the patient. The information is kept in a secure database
and is confidential, just as other medical records. Authorized health
care providers who suspect abuse can request a patient's controlled
substance history through KASPER by faxing or mailing a form seeking
the information. It usually takes less than a day for a response. KASPER
provides the dates, amounts, pharmacy locations and prescribing physicians
for any controlled substances given to a patient.
During the year 2000, there were 36,174 requests for information from
KASPER; the following year the number jumped to 71,848. Before KASPER,
it took drug control investigators an average of 156 days to complete
an investigation of an alleged doctor shopper. Under KASPER, the average
time dropped to 16 days.
State law allows law enforcement agencies to also seek data from KASPER
if they are investigating a criminal case.
For more information
about KASPER, contact Gil
Lawson at the Cabinet for Health Services or click here.
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