Legislative Affairs BY AMY LYNN SORREL


Making over PAT


LAWMAKERS LOOK TO IMPROVE TEXAS’ PRESCRIPTION DRUG MONITORING DATABASE


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With a few improvements, C.M. Shade, MD, says Texas’ prescription monitoring database can be a great tool to help physicians fight drug diversion and treat patients in need.


W


hen Texas’ prescription monitoring database, Prescription Access in


Texas (PAT), went offline for a few weeks, Garland pain manage- ment specialist C.M. Schade, MD, couldn’t see what turned out to be obvious signs of doctor-shopping. A patient whom police eventu- ally arrested had already been to multiple doctors for the same pain medicine prescription. Designed to rein in drug traf-


ficking and abuse, PAT allows physicians and other authorized users — like pharmacists, midlevel practitioners, and law enforce- ment personnel — to see patients’ prescription drug history for the last 12 months. Pharmacists must report prescription data within seven days of filling an order. “It made me look bad, like I


wasn’t doing anything about the problem,” said Dr. Schade, a past


PHOTO BY JIM LINCOLN March 2015 TEXAS MEDICINE 37


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