Bartell Drugs and Pharmitas, Inc. Team up in Pilot Program to Combat Methamphetamine Problem.Industry First: Pilot Program at Bartell Drugstores to Use the First Hand-Held System in the Nation to Record, Track and Report the Sales of Regulated Over-the-Counter Drugs LYNNWOOD, Wash. -- Bartell Drugs and Bellevue-based Pharmitas, Inc., a provider of digital software solutions for the retail, healthcare and government sectors, today announced the launch of a retail pilot program utilizing SudaScan -- a patent-pending software and database system -- to manage the sales of regulated non-prescription cough and cold products as mandated by the federal Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act of 2005 ("CMEA CMEA Council for Mutual Economic Assistance CMEA Cellular Message Encryption Algorithm CMEA Canadian Music Educators' Association CMEA Council for Mutual Economic Aid CMEA Certified Machinery Equipment Appraiser CMEA Colorado Music Education Association "). The new system will be showcased for media with demonstrations/briefings from 10 a.m. to noon on Monday, March 19 at Bartell Drugs in Lynnwood (17633 Highway 99). Pharmitas management, Bartell's representatives, and government and local law enforcement officials will be on hand. SudaScan is a software and database system that has been developed to log, track and report the sales of select non-prescription cough and cold products containing the chemical ingredients pseudoephedrine pseudoephedrine /pseu·do·ephed·rine/ (-e-fed´rin) one of the optical isomers of ephedrine; used as the hydrochloride or sulfate salt as a nasal decongestant. pseu·do·e·phed·rine n. , ephedrine ephedrine (ĭfĕd`rĭn, ĕf`ĭdrēn'), drug derived from plants of the genus Ephedra (see Pinophyta), most commonly used to prevent mild or moderate attacks of bronchial asthma. and phenylpropanolamine phenylpropanolamine /phen·yl·pro·pa·nol·amine/ (-pro?pah-nol´ah-men) an adrenergic, used in the form of the hydrochloride salt as a nasal and sinus decongestant, as an appetite suppressant, and in the treatment of stress incontinence. (collectively referred here as "PSE PSE 1. pale soft exudative pork. 2. portosystemic encephalopathy. "). These ingredients are used in manufacturing the illegal drug, methamphetamine. SudaScan replaces onerous and time consuming manual paper-based logs with its electronic data capture and management system. The system instantaneously reads and decodes two-dimensional driver's license Noun 1. driver's license - a license authorizing the bearer to drive a motor vehicle driver's licence, driving licence, driving license license, permit, licence - a legal document giving official permission to do something barcode information and UPC (Universal Product Code) The standard bar code printed on retail merchandise, which is administered by GS1 US, Brussels, Belgium and Lawrenceville, NJ (www.gs1.org). product labels. The SudaScan database ensures accurate tracking and reporting of regulated PSE product sales. All data that is captured and stored is confidential and fully compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1996. According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) website, Title I of HIPAA protects health insurance coverage for workers and their families when ("HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act of 1996, Public Law 104-191) Also known as the "Kennedy-Kassebaum Act," this U.S. law protects employees' health insurance coverage when they change or lose their jobs (Title I) and provides standards for patient health, ") of 1996. The benefits of SudaScan include: Consumers: * Reduces transaction time * Reduces hassle-factor of manually recording required information * Reduces privacy concerns Government and Law Enforcement: * Restricts "over-limit" sales to consumers * Allows access to real-time PSE sales information * Proactively identifies offenders and alerts law enforcement officials Retailers: * Reduces error and non-compliance risk * Eliminates record/log storage issues * Reduces transaction time "Bartell Drugs continues its commitment to be at the forefront of customer service and convenience for its customers and for the many communities we serve," said George D. Bartell, chairman and chief executive officer of Bartell Drugs. "It is our hope that the SudaScan pilot program will be a win-win-win situation for our customers, our pharmacists and law enforcement personnel. We welcome the opportunity to support law enforcement officials in battling the methamphetamine problem. The new system is intended to save valuable time on individual sales transactions while minimizing privacy concerns." "An electronic log is a crucial next step in effectively tackling the methamphetamine epidemic in Washington and throughout the U.S.," said Rob McKenna
Robert ("Rob") McKenna , attorney general of Washington State. "We support the implementation of an electronic system that aids law enforcement personnel with their drug programs and duties." "We are excited to work with Bartell Drugs, Washington's own drugstores, to showcase SudaScan as the first real solution to effectively enforce the federal Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act and battle the growing meth meth n. Methamphetamine hydrochloride. problem that is so costly to all Americans," said Chris Parsons, president and founder of Pharmitas, Inc. "As of September 2006, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) was established in 1973 by President richard m. nixon as part of the Justice Department, thus uniting a number of federal drug agencies that had often worked at cross-purposes. reported that there were about 1900 individual PSE products for sale and more than 131,000 registered sellers nationwide. These sellers include grocery, pharmacy and drug stores; discount department stores This is a list of department stores. In the case of department store groups the location of the flagship store is given. This list does not include large specialist stores, which sometimes resemble department stores. ; warehouse clubs and superstores; convenience stores The following is a list of convenience stores organized by geographical location. Stores are grouped by the lowest heading that contains all locales in which the brands have significant presence. ; and other general merchandise stores. We'd like to see all of them use SudaScan and participate in our state and local database management systems." About Bartell Drugs Seattle-based Bartell Drugs owns and operates stores in King, Snohomish and Pierce counties. Family owned for 116 years, it is the nation's oldest drugstore chain. For more information on Bartell Drugs visit www.bartelldrugs.com. About Pharmitas, Inc. Pharmitas, Inc. is a Bellevue, Wash.-based technology company that provides retail, healthcare and government organizations with technology tools to comply with laws restricting the distribution and sales of a wide variety of regulated products. The company's hardware and software solutions for data collection and management are customizable and easily integrated into almost any situation. Pharmitas specializes in turnkey solutions that increase productivity and improve accuracy while surpassing the highest criteria for data security and consumer privacy protection. The company's primary offering, SudaScan, is a software and database system, developed to log, track and report, the sales of select non-prescription pseudoephedrine, ephedrine, and phenylpropanolamine cough and cold products (as mandated in the Federal Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act of 2005). For more information about Pharmitas, Inc., visit the company's Web site located at www.Pharmitas.com. [c] 2007 Pharmitas, Inc. All rights reserved. |
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