Department of Correctional Services

Selected Aspects of the Procurement of Pharmaceuticals

The Department of Correctional Services has 70 facilities housing about 63,000 inmates. Certain of its facilities have pharmacies to fill inmate medical prescriptions, while others have their prescriptions filled by vendors. We examined whether the Department had taken all available steps to procure pharmaceuticals at the lowest possible cost to the State. We found that the Department’s Central Pharmacy complied with procurement guidelines and made reasonable efforts to obtain the lowest price for the pharmaceuticals it stocked and for the inmate prescriptions filled by pharmacy vendors. However, we identified certain actions that could be taken to further reduce pharmaceutical costs. For example, the Central Pharmacy could better oversee purchasing practices at individual correctional facilities to identify practices that unnecessarily increased pharmaceutical costs.

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