Washington State Prescription Monitoring Program Dispensation Records

Washington State's Prescription Monitoring Program collects dispensing records for Schedule II-V controlled substances to improve patient care. This public dataset contains de-identified dispensation records from January 1, 2012 onward, managed by the Washington State Department of Health. Data excludes prescriptions dispensed out-of-state, for 24 hours or less, or administered in hospitals.

Use Cases

• Analyze trends in opioid prescriptions by correlating `drugclass`, `totalmme`, and `year`.
• Compare dispensing patterns of specific drugs like `oxycodone` or `alprazolam` using `drugname` and `quantity` over `yearqtr`.
• Investigate the relationship between drug scheduling (`schedule`) and prescription characteristics like `dayssupply` and `refillsauthorized`.
• Calculate population-level morphine milligram equivalent (MME) metrics using `totalmme` and `dailymme` columns for risk assessment studies.
• Examine veterinary prescriptions by filtering records where `animal` is true and analyzing `species`, `prescribervet`, and `dispenservet`.

Strengths

• Data collection began October 7, 2011, with public records starting January 1, 2012, providing a multi-year time series.
• Includes 27 distinct columns detailing drug information, scheduling, quantities, and patient supply metrics.

Limitations

• Excludes prescriptions dispensed outside Washington State, administered in hospitals, or for 24 hours or less, limiting generalizability.
• Data is de-identified, removing patient, prescriber, and dispenser details, preventing individual-level linkage or analysis.

Provenance

Source

Washington State Department of Health Prescription Monitoring Program.

Collection Method

Mandatory collection of dispensing records from all in-state dispensers of Schedule II-V controlled substances.

Time Range

January 1, 2012 to present.

Freshness

Updated to the latest data available as of February 3, 2026.

Geography

Washington State, USA.