The United States Department of Veterans Affairs will be collaborating with Indiana’s Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (INSPECT) in order to curb opioid abuse among Hoosier veterans, Gov. Mike Pence announced Wednesday.
INSPECT was established in 1994 as a law enforcement tool, according to INSPECT Director Mike Brady. In 2007, however, its purpose shifted to being a health care tool used to mitigate risk factors when controlled substances are prescribed, Brady said.
Prior to this new partnership, if a controlled substance was prescribed to a veteran, the Department of Veterans Affairs did not have to report that prescription to the INSPECT system, so health care professionals at INSPECT had no way of regulating the drug use and preventing addiction and abuse, Brady said.
With the new collaboration promoted by Pence’s organization, pharmacies will input into the INSPECT system when a controlled substance is prescribed, and practitioners outside of the Veterans Affairs health care system will be able to see the prescription and help prevent abuse.
“The program itself is just a valuable tool for physicians and health care practitioners to help them see the full picture of what their patients are prescribed,” Brady said.
The collaboration will begin with a pilot program at the Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center in Indianapolis. If all goes according to plan during this trial period, the Adam Benjamin Jr. VA in Crown Point and both the Fort Wayne and Marion, Indiana, campuses of the VA Northern Indiana Health Care System will implement the INSPECT program, according to a press release from the Office of the Governor.
The release also said the Evansville VA Health Care Facility, which transmits pharmacy data through the VA Medical Center in Marion, Illinois, will not be submitting data to INSPECT, but health care practicioners in Indiana will still be able to access their veteran patients’ health data through a pre-existing agreement with Illinois.
In the release, Ginny Creasman, interim director of the Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center in Indianapolis, said because of the collaboration, health care will ultimately be safer for veterans.
“Since 2007, INSPECT has been a valuable tool for health care providers in Indiana,” Creasman said. “This additional effort will ensure prescription information is made securely available to both the VA and community providers.”
Trent Fox, director of communications for INSPECT, said the group is hopeful the collaboration will help curb opioid addiction among Hoosier veterans, and the pilot period will be very important.
“There’s the pilot, and if there are technical issues we can work them out,” Fox said. “When you’re working with data that’s this highly sensitive, it’s always imperative that you have strong security protocol in place.”
This is not the first program Pence’s administration has promoted to combat drug abuse in the state. Pence also established the Governor’s Task Force on Drug Enforcement, Treatment and Prevention by executive order. He also recently revealed state plans to construct a new neuro-diagnostic institute, which will provide advancements to Indiana’s public mental health delivery system.
“Indiana has always valued the service of our veterans,” Pence said. “This new partnership between INSPECT and the federal Department of Veterans Affairs is a continuance of our promise to ensure quality health care for our Hoosier veterans and a positive step forward in the fight against opioid abuse in Indiana.”
