Indiana VA's To Start Monitoring Prescriptions

INDIANAPOLIS - For the first time Indiana VA hospitals will begin to track and share prescription information between providers in an effort to curb drug abuse.

The U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs will be working with Indiana’s Prescription Drug Monitoring Program called INSPECT to provide a more complete picture of what drugs Indiana vets are using and who’s prescribing them.The move requires that veterans prescription information through the VA be submitted to the online data base. 

Allen County Judge Wendy Davis sits on the Governor’s Drug Task Force advocated for this tool to be more widely implemented.  She says the new requirement is a step in the right direction.

"Unless we don’t start taking some sort of action like this, we’re never going to get anything resolved, so I think this is definitely heading in the right direction and now we need to follow up on it make sure that it’s working the way it’s supposed to with INSPECT,"  Davis said. 

The Roudebush VA in Indianapolis will be the first to implement the program, followed by VA centers in Crown Point, Fort Wayne and Marion.  The Evansville VA will not submit data to INSPECT because of an existing agreement with an Illinois program.