Washington’s PMP was created (RCW 70.225 (2007)) to improve patient care and to stop prescription drug misuse by collecting dispensing records for Schedule II, III, IV and V drugs, and by making the information available to medical providers and pharmacists as a patient care tool. Program rules, WAC 246-470, took effect August 27, 2011. The program started data collection from all dispensers October 7, 2011.

Under RCW 70.225.040(5)(a), the department is authorized to publish public data after removing information that could be used directly or indirectly to identify individual patients, requestors, dispensers, prescribers, and persons who received prescriptions from dispensers. The data available here are de-identified, and exclude patient, prescriber, and dispenser related information in alignment with program rules WAC 246-470-080. No requestor information is available here.

Prescriptions excluded from PMP include those dispensed outside of WA State, those prescribed for less than or equal to 24 hours, those administered or given to a patient in the hospital, and those dispensed from a Department of Corrections pharmacy (unless an offender is released with a prescription), an Opioid Treatment Program, and some federally operated pharmacies (Indian Health Services and Veterans Affairs report voluntarily since 2015).

Further information on collection and management of PMP data at DOH can be found at www.doh.wa.gov/pmp/data.