September 08, 2017 - Yale New Haven Health and Yale School of Medicine have partnered with the State of Connecticut and a technology vendor to integrate data from the Connecticut Prescription Monitoring and Reporting System (CPRMS) into its Epic EHR in an effort to combat opioid misuse. Yale and the state’s CPRMS will use a solution from health IT company Apriss Health to integrate prescription drug data into patient EHRs. CPRMS assists providers in reducing prescription drug misuse, addiction, and overdose. By integrating CPRMS health data into Yale’s patient EHRs, Yale physicians and prescribers will be able to obtain information about a patient’s opioid prescriptions and other medications to ensure care is managed appropriately in compliance with state regulations. “This partnership and integration is one strategy in our Connecticut Opioid Response (CORE) initiative to reduce deaths from opioid overdoses in the state and improve the use of the CPMRS thereby enhancing safe prescribing,” said Yale New Haven Health Chief of Emergency Services Gail D’Onofrio, MD. Presently, physicians trying to use information from Connecticut’s controlled substance database must access several separate systems with different login requirements to get the data they need. Through the partnership, Yale physicians will be able to quickly identify patients with a high risk of adverse drug reactions or overdose using a single system — their Epic EHR. The Appriss NarxCare system will provide physicians with a full report of a patient’s opioid and controlled substance history within the EHR system. “Our physicians throughout Yale New Haven Health will now have the critical information they need to make the best prescribing and medical decisions to improve the safety of our patients,” said Yale School of Medicine CMIO Allen Hsiao, MD. Streamlining prescription data access will assist efforts to quell the opioid crisis — one of the top priorities of the Trump Administration in 2017. In August, the Presidents Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and Opioid Crisis published an interim report requesting President Trump encourage state and federal prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) to participate in health data exchange. By incorporating patient opioid prescription history into Yale’s Epic EHR system, Connecticut’s prescription drug database is taking steps to fulfill this aim. “At the Department of Consumer Protection, it is important to us that prescribers have the up-to-date and accurate information they need to make the best decisions possible for their patients,” said Consumer Protection Commissioner Michelle Seagull. “We are always looking for ways to make productive, common sense updates to the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program that can improve health care in our state.” Earlier this summer, the Nebraska Health Information Initiative (NeHII) and the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) similarly implemented a solution to enhance the capabilities of their PDMP. In a partnership with the state agency, NeHII is using e-prescribing and medication management solutions from health IT company DrFirst to capture prescription information from the state’s database. The program is designed to improve patient safety by enhancing the capabilities of Nebraska’s PDMP for more accurate opioid and controlled substance monitoring. Senator Sara Howard of Omaha is partially responsible for spurring the push to integrate prescription drug data into Nebraska’s HIE. Howard introduced a bill requiring the state PDMP to participate in health data exchange. “By making narcotic prescription details available to every doctor and pharmacist, providers can identify patients who are potentially at risk of abuse or doctor shopping for medication,” said Howard in a public statement. “This program provides hope to any family who has ever been devastated by the loss of a loved one due to prescription drug abuse.”
Yale New Haven Health and Yale School of Medicine have partnered with the State of Connecticut and a technology vendor to integrate data from the Connecticut Prescription Monitoring and Reporting System (CPRMS) into its Epic EHR in an effort to combat opioid misuse.