The state of Indiana is taking steps to implement a statewide, comprehensive platform for medical professionals to review patients’ controlled-substance prescription history more quickly and efficiently.
Last week, Indiana Governor Eric J. Holcomb announced that prescription drug data will be integrated into electronic health records (EHRs) and pharmacy management systems at hospitals and physicians’ offices across the state.
Appriss Health, a provider of a health IT platform focused on substance use disorders, has signed an agreement with the Indiana Professional Licensing Agency, an entity that manages the Indiana Scheduled Prescription Electronic Collection and Tracking (INSPECT) program, the state’s prescription drug monitoring database (PDMP), to enable integration of controlled substance prescription information into EHRs and pharmacy management systems throughout the state.
Appriss Health’s PMP Gateway solution integrates INSPECT information in real-time directly into EHRs to serve as a clinical decision support tool for all Indiana prescribers and dispensers, according to the company’s press release. The platform has been successfully implemented in two healthcare systems already, and statewide integration of the INSPECT platform is a key component of Indiana’s ongoing efforts to attack the opioid crisis, Gov. Holcomb said in a state press release.
“INSPECT helps healthcare professionals around the state limit the number of controlled-substance prescriptions that contribute to our state’s devastating drug crisis,” Gov. Holcomb said. “I commend Indiana’s Professional Licensing Agency, Board of Pharmacy and Appriss Health for their hard work and partnership to make a statewide platform for INSPECT possible.”
The Indiana Professional Licensing Agency (IPLA) began the project in 2016 when it first partnered with Appriss Health to examine how to make INSPECT data more effective and accessible for healthcare practitioners. In the year that followed, IPLA partnered with Kroger Pharmacy to introduce the program into its pharmacy software. Most recently, Deaconess Midtown in Evansville became the first hospital in the state to integrate its EHR records with INSPECT data. The response from both Deaconess and Kroger has been overwhelmingly positive, as physicians and pharmacists alike have praised the ease of use and efficiency of the new model.
INSPECT collects information on the prescribing and dispensing of controlled substances statewide and provides data directly within a patient’s electronic health record. Without INSPECT integration, the process of reviewing a patient’s prescription history requires a separate website and portal. Once a healthcare organization integrates INSPECT, practitioners can click a button to view prescription history, according to a state press release.
