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Only 2.8% of New York health care providers with the capacity to prescribe controlled substances utilize the state online database, which is meant to help these professionals catch drug abusers. This is despite an assiduous PR effort on the part of the state.
Abuse of painkillers, especially oxycodone, is becoming a growing problem. Last year, Long Island suffered more overdose deaths thanks to painkillers than heroin. The murders of four people in a Medford pharmacy in June last year brought the issue to the fore. The murderers, David Laffer and Melissa Brady, had received 12,000 pills in the four years prior.
Clearly, the electronic database cannot do its job if physicians are not using it. But other states do not suffer the same problem. 37 states update their systems more frequently -- often every two weeks, whereas New York updates its database once per month. Oklahoma is only now setting up a real time system. It is no surprise then that 60% of providers use Oklahoma's system.
Furthermore, most states allow their pharmacists to use their databases. New York does not.
For now, New York's solution is to simply send letters to doctors informing them which patients might be abusing the system. All the while, they advocate the use of the database.
Meanwhile, the Attorney General plans to introduce legislation, which would centralize the maintenance of the database and mandate use of it. This may burden prescribers and pharmacists, but others have introduced less controversial legislation to expand the system's access.
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If you would like more information about how medical malpractice and accident cases work in the state of New York, I encourage you to explore my educational website. If you have legal questions, I urge you to pick up the phone and call me at 516-487-8207 or by e-mail at lawmed10@yahoo.com to answer your questions. That's what I do every day. I welcome your call.
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