How to protect the diversion of controlled substances?

Nearly 15% of drug diversions happen from within healthcare workers. Working with a health care facility offers easy access to controlled substance drugs. Addiction makes you forget the fears of putting your health at risk and your responsibilities towards society. To protect this kind of diversion DEA has made rules to abide by compliance to decrease the chances of the misuse of controlled substances.

Most of the controlled substance diversions happen from within the folds of the strictly regulated medical facilities. The work of a medical provider enables an easy procurement of controlled substances, and if perchance they were used for a medical reason the lingering effect of the same drug can happen even after the treatment is over. Hospitals need constant monitoring to ensure that drug diversion is not taking place. Controlled substance drugs are meant for patients who are experiencing unbearable pain from various illnesses. They may or may not be chronic. The DEA expects all medical facilities to comply with the diversion DEA regulations.

All licensed medical practitioners, licensed pharmacists, and license veterinary holders, dealing with controlled substances must comply with the DEA laid down rules. Compliance with either DEA or FDI, whichever rule is more stringent is the applicable path to be taken for health facilities. It becomes significantly impossible for large health facilities to monitor their staff individually. Therefore, taking help from an experienced source in controlled substance management can define a better system within the organization and check the diversion of controlled substance misuse.

How does a DEA compliance expert benefit your organization?

When your organization is actively dealing with controlled substances, you need to have a constant onsite inspection facility that reviews and controls the environment within the facility. They will look after every detail from receiving the consignment of controlled substances, logs, storage, modern securing standards, staff screening, daily processing, using modern technology for better overall management. Though technology is a huge blessing in today's time, not everything can be managed through it. What can an expert do better and a technology management system will miss?

DEA Mock inspections

DEA comes for inspections unannounced, so your expert team of quality testing will prepare you for a DEA investigation. Most often staff will be caught unaware and if there are gaps in the teamwork, they can be identified at the source and treated. A one-day drill using an expert advisor will test the grit of the organization and help it to work with vigilance and command. This will help to map the logistic strength of the organization and offer a true picture of record-keeping at every stage.

An audit of your controlled substance holding

The expert company with an idea on how the DEA works will perform a detailed audit which would include procurement, prescription, waste disposal, security aspects and many other such concerns that will be monitored through record-keeping practices and logbooks to ensure that everything complies with the diversion DEA regulations.

A review of the mock audit

A complete review of the mock audit is hugely beneficial to a company as that would responsibly mark the areas of improvement according to the CSA code section / Title 21 of the CFR, and suggest punitive actions for defaulters and also recommendations for improvement in the areas where discrepancies have been noted.

A new set of guidelines

Though DEA has already set guidelines, the DEA expert source will set SOPs or standard operating procedures, for the staff to handle operations better. From record-keeping to security compliance, managing inventories, background checking of staff members, monitoring the activities of those with a power of attorney (POAs), all will be covered. This will help meet better regulation within the organization and keep everyone vigilant and think twice before performing a controlled substance drug diversion.

Training and educating the staff

After setting the guidelines, the expert team will offer various courses that will empower the staff with the correct knowledge of the handling of controlled substance drugs and the implications of mishandling them. Knowledge and information through a series of courses will train the staff towards better compliance.

The experts will not withdraw their support after the staff training and the regulation are in place and practice. The inspection of the compliance and whether methods are being followed will be a task that they will continue to monitor to ensure that the organization never falls on the wrong side of DEA.

The experts involve the executive health care support to counter the challenges within the organization. Involving people from different departments of the health facilities such as nursing, pharmacy, physicians, security, law enforcement personnel, who deal with the controlled substances directly and keep them in confidence to maintain compliance and monitor the activities of other staff members. There may be some staff hesitation but educating them in the right direction is a responsibility taken by the DEA experts for the greater good of their fellow workers.

The inclusion of behavioral analytics and Artificial Intelligence, maintaining digital database inventories tracking the movement of each controlled substance from the shelf will offer highly specific insight into any possibilities of a drug diversion. The analytical tools are an efficient way of studying the data pattern and interpreting any mismatch automatically. The absence of such tools will lead to manual audits that may be fraught with discrepancies and human errors, intentional or unintended. Usually, these reports are huge and trying to tackle them manually is no longer a need when you have predictive tools that affirm greater accuracy and take much lesser time. The results give you sufficient time to act on a resolute and faster solution to repair the issue than let a culpable crime escape by allowing more time on data follow-ups.

How will you meet the right expert?

When you endeavor to meet the compliance of DEA diversion, you must be aware of what the DEA expects. Going through the guidelines is not enough if you do not fully understand what is expected or are not able to monitor if all the guidelines are being followed. Meeting and requesting the service of someone who has been a part of the DEA makes sense as that would be hands-on learning of the expected compliance that diversions DEA strictly regulates. You can seek the expertise of the Titan Group that works under the leadership of Jack Teitelman.

With 26 years’ experience of working with the Department of Justice/Drug Enforcement Administration as a Special Agent and Supervisory Special Agent, his expansive experience is a bonus for any organization that wants to put their records straight and follow exactly what the DEA desires for all controlled substance dealers to do. With an added experience in technical electronics and security systems, he will help in boosting the security system and ensuring that all functions are played by the book. His expertise has been used by many domestic and foreign entities for protecting against controlled substance abuse in organizations. His experience has largely benefitted many in keeping with the DEA diversion regulations. Visit https://titangroupdea.com to get in touch with Jack Teitelman and seek his expertise.