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This week, the Ohio Board of Pharmacy announced that Ohio prescribers and pharmacists can now request patient prescription information from Pennsylvania through Ohio’s prescription monitoring program, known as the Ohio Automated Rx Reporting System (OARRS). As a result, Ohio healthcare providers can now access patient information on controlled substances from all 5 states contiguous to Ohio (Indiana, Kentucky. Michigan, Pennsylvania and West Virginia) without having to use separate systems. In addition, OARRS users can access patient data from Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Kansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota and Virginia. The professional license defense attorneys at Graff & McGovern agree with the Ohio Board of Pharmacy that this feature further enhances the ability of providers to prevent the misuse and diversion of controlled substances, including opioid pain medications.

On June 26, 2017, OARRS achieved a new patient request record with prescribers and pharmacists requesting more than 365,000 patient reports in a single day. According to the Ohio Board of Pharmacy Executive Director Steven W. Schierholt: Expanding OARRS to include data from Pennsylvania strengthens this vital healthcare resource…. This important development gives Ohio healthcare professionals the most holistic view of a patient’s controlled substance history.

As referenced in an April 2017 article posted here, OARRS is a valuable tool for Ohio licensed practitioners who prescribe, but it can also be a potential pitfall for practitioners who fail to access it in the manner required by Ohio laws and rules governing prescribing. With the above-referenced improvements to OARRS and the ever increasing use of the system, the professional license defense lawyers at Graff & McGovern are making sure their physician, physician assistant and nurse practitioner clients remain abreast of the ever changing OARRS requirements. By doing so, those practitioners will be better able to protect themselves and their patients from being part of the misuse and diversion of controlled substances.

If you have questions about the Ohio Automated Rx Reporting System (OARRS), please do not hesitate to contact the professional license defense attorney at Graff & McGovern. Jim McGovern can be reach at 614-228-5800, x2.