Missouri congresswoman Vicky Hartzler is renewing her calls for the state legislature to create a prescription drug monitoring program.
Hartzler spoke with hospital administrators from Boone Hospital Center Tuesday about their work addressing the opioid crisis.
Boone County participates in the Saint Louis County Department of Public Health Prescription Drug Monitoring Program but Missouri doesn’t have a statewide monitoring program.
“You’re leaving areas where individuals could be going from pharmacy to pharmacy, getting multiple opioid prescriptions and either selling them or abusing them themselves,” Hartzler said.
A bill that would create a statewide program passed the House this month. Similar bills have failed in the past due to privacy concerns.
Boone Hospital Center President Jim Sinek said a statewide program would allow healthcare providers to identify people with an opioid addiction.
“The goal really is to try and work with them and their family members and other providers throughout Mid-Missouri — behavioral health providers, for example — to try to put together a plan on behalf of that patient to help them get off these very addictive drugs,” Sinek said.