This Technical Assistance Guide (TAG) provided by the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) Training and Technical Assistance Center (TTAC) identifies the areas where prescription data errors may occur, some procedures PDMPs use to detect those errors, and steps for ensuring that erroneous data are corrected.
This TAG also provides suggestions for prescribers, dispensers, and other stakeholders to consider in preventing data errors from occurring. The three major sections address data submission compliance, data quality, and error remediation. The section on data submission compliance identifies causes for dispensers' failure to submit data and recommends practices that maximize compliance. The section on data quality focuses on how unintentional data errors occur in the process of prescribing or dispensing a controlled substance prescription. The most common prescription errors are explained, along with checks to identify those errors and actions that stakeholders can take to reduce their incidence. The third section, which addresses error remediation, notes that PDMPs are responsible for having in place a system that identifies errors, informs dispensers of the errors, and monitors the correction of errors. Promising practices in the error notification process and tracking of error corrections are described, and methods are suggested for improving efficiency within these processes.