Jerry Brown
LOS ANGELES (Legal Newsline)-California Attorney General Jerry Brown said Tuesday that healthcare workers in the state will soon be able to track patients' previous prescriptions.
Hoping to make it more difficult for patients who go from doctor to doctor to get drugs, Brown said his office will place the state's prescription-tracking database on a secure Internet site so physicians and other providers can log onto they system to obtain the information instantly.
Under the plan to be announced Wednesday, prescriptions filled for schedule II, III and IV narcotics would be instantly available.
The planned system will allow healthcare providers to access the information with a few keystrokes. Currently, providers and pharmacists must submit requests to the attorney general's office by fax or telephone.
"We have a horse and buggy system today," Brown told The Associated Press. "The doctors or the pharmacists can't really keep track-in real time-of abusers of prescription drugs."
Brown said the $3.5 million needed for the database will have to come from private sources because the state doesn't have the money.
The Troy and Alana Pack Foundation would bankroll the database's implementation costs, while the state Department of Justice would absorbing maintenance costs, Brown said.
From Legal Newsline: Reach reporter Chris Rizo by e-mail at chrisrizo@legalnewsline.com.