Integrating Electronic Health Records With PDMPs

For more than a decade, prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) and healthcare providers have understood the benefits of integrating PDMPs with electronic health records (EHR). This expedites the ability of prescribers and other PDMP users to obtain controlled substances prescription data and assures that the information obtained is within the EHR system with which they work routinely. The more effective the use of PDMP data, the more patients benefit in improved prescribing and quality of care. This session will feature two programs to inform participants’ work in this area.

Unique work is required to effectively integrate states’ PDMPs with tribal healthcare facilities. Presenters from RxCheck (IJIS Institute) and Utah Navajo Health will highlight successful PDMP-EHR strategies that states and healthcare systems have used and describe important lessons learned to reduce barriers that others can implement. The presentation will cover Utah Navajo Health’s unique approach to PDMP-EHR integration and how these improved capabilities were designed to inform clinical practice and improve patient care. The initiative is part of a partnership by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) to develop and implement both intra- and inter-state interoperability and data exchange via BJA’s RxCheck PDMP hub.

From Colorado, presenters will report on their integration efforts, which include PDMP tools now live at 10 hospital centers with more than 250 associated clinics, more than 500 000 emergency department visits, 3.5 million outpatient visits, and 140 000 admissions per year. The health system includes academic, community, urban, suburban, and rural sites. They will cover important lessons learned about EHR-PDMP integration, technical clinical decision support (CDS) development, integration of published best practices and opioid prescribing risk factors, key stakeholder input, local governance, delivery of education, and real-time monitoring of outcomes. They will discuss their ongoing evaluation of the impact of PDMP use on patient-centered outcomes, including future opioid use, opioid use disorder, hospitalizations, and deaths.