Opioid addiction is one of the major crises faced by the United States. Since the year 2000, more than a million people have lost their lives due to drug overdose, mainly of which were due to opioid usage. This issue kicked off with the over-prescription of legal pain medication, but over the years have intensified due to the availability of cheap heroin and synthetic opioids.
The PDMP EHR integration
An interactive tool from the CDC and ONC helps to enhance opioid prescribing through Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (PDMP) EHR Software integrations. This health IT integration can help to combat the drug overdose predicament in the US. The robust tool offers guidance to States to advance the integration of PDMPs with the physician’s health IT systems including Electronic Medical Records (EMR) Software, electronic health records software, health information exchanges, and pharmacy systems.
The state-level intervention can improve opioid prescribing, keep clinical practices better informed and provide safer and more effective care to patients ultimately enhancing health outcome levels. When the prescription drug monitoring program data is integrated into the EHR systems it addresses any barricades to accessing PDMP data which can help providers in informed and accurate decision-making and overall improve opioid prescribing.
Resources from the integration framework
The integration framework from the CDC and ONC provides practical guidance on management and project execution for seamless integrations and has the following resources,
- Quick Start Guide – Contains all the technical and non-technical language and context related to integration planning.
- Integration Taxonomy – Various approaches for integrating with the state Prescription Drug Monitoring Program.
- Training Guidance – Answers the most common questions raised throughout the project.
- Auditing Guidance – Pointers and tips to recording transactions for PDMP-EHR Integration.
- MOU Guidance – Provides points of consideration in developing PDMP-EHR data integration and sharing agreements.
- Testing Guidance – Defines different test scenarios for integration sites for testing before integration.
- Testing Template – Helps with testing documentation.
Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs help clinicians to see the patients prescribing histories to make informed prescribing decisions improving patient safety.
