Harrisburg, PA - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 22, 2017
Prescription Drug Monitoring Program Team Earns Governor’s Award for Excellence
Harrisburg, PA – Governor Wolf announced seven Department of Health employees are recipients of the Governor’s Awards for Excellence for their outstanding contributions to public health working on the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP).
Terri Calloway, Jennifer Dugan, Ashley Parsons, Meghan Patel, Jared Shinabery, Norman Spotts and Dr, Carrie Thomas were recognized by Governor Wolf at a ceremony today in Harrisburg.
“This team has gone above and beyond their job requirements to provide outstanding service and make government more responsive and effective,” said Governor Wolf. “Their accomplishments are truly exemplary and inspiring. We are fortunate to have such outstanding public servants working for the people of Pennsylvania.”
The team received the award for helping to build the state’s Prescription Drug Monitoring Program from the ground up in less than five months, providing an essential tool in the fight against heroin and opioid abuse. To date, nearly 90,000 health care professionals have accessed the database more than 7 million times to check for other prescriptions for controlled substances for patients, helping them to identify potential cases of addiction and connect individuals with treatment.
“Our PDMP team’s exemplary work has been invaluable in the Wolf Administration’s efforts to combat the heroin and opioid epidemic,” Secretary of Health Dr. Karen Murphy said. “By preventing overprescribing of opioids and stopping addiction before it starts, we’re saving lives across the commonwealth.”
The PDMP collects Schedule II-V controlled substances data and stores it in a secure database only available to healthcare professionals and others as authorized by law. PDMP has improved the quality of patient care by requiring prescribers and dispensers to access information about all controlled substances dispensed to their patients to prevent overprescribing. The system also assists prescribers in referring patients with the disease of addiction to appropriate treatment, and it aids regulatory and law enforcement agencies in the detection and prevention of fraud, drug abuse and criminal diversion of controlled drugs.
For the Governor’s Awards for Excellence, 30 state agencies submitted a total of 82 nominations prepared by their employees, with five individual and four group nominations selected as winners for this year’s awards.
For more information about the Governor’s Awards for Excellence, visit the Pennsylvania Office of Administration website. To learn more about the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program and other efforts by the Department of Health to combat the heroin and opioid epidemic, visit www.health.pa.gov or follow the Department of Health on Facebook and Twitter.
MEDIA CONTACT: April Hutcheson - 717-787-1783 or ra-dhpressoffice@pa.gov
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