Fraser Cobbe
Orange County Medical Society
Seminole County Medical Society
The Florida Department of Health has finalized a rule that will enable physicians to use designees to query the Prescription Drug Monitoring Database, E-FORCSE®. The new rule is in response to requests from the physician community to provide greater flexibility for physicians to assign responsibility for reviewing the database to key staff members.
The final version of the rule, effective February 14, 2017, clearly establishes both the process and responsibility physicians assume when assigning a designee to query the database on their behalf.
The rule defines as "designee" as follows:
"Designee" means a person, preferably a licensed or certified health care professional, appointed to act as an agent of a prescriber or dispenser for the purposes of requesting or receiving information from the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program database, E-FORCSE®.
Our organization strongly encourages members to pay attention to the limitations and legal obligations for appropriate use of the database.
