Prescription drug monitoring program use and utility by Washington State pharmacists: A mixed-methods study

Abstract

Objectives: To explore factors and situations that influence pharmacists to use the prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP) and to characterize actions taken by pharmacists after alarming scenarios from a PDMP query. Design: Explanatory sequential 2-phase mixed-methods design: (1) cross-sectional Webbased survey of Washington State pharmacists followed by (2) interviews with purposefully selected respondents to explore statistically significant quantitative findings. Setting and participants: The study was conducted in Washington State from September 2018 to February 2019. A total of 967 Washington State pharmacists from various practice settings, including inpatient and outpatient pharmacies, participated. Ten outpatient pharmacists were interviewed in the second phase. Outcome measures: The pharmacists reported the frequency of PDMP use, opinion on the usefulness of PDMP, and action(s) taken after a concerning PDMP report. Results: The usable response rate for pharmacists with a PDMP account was 17.6% (818/4659), and usable response rate for all pharmacists was 10.4% (967/9263). PDMP use varied by race, practice setting, and employer policy on PDMP use. Among the 818 PDMP users, 396 (48%) used the database at least once during a shift. Frequent PDMP users were more likely to recommend naloxone compared with less frequent users (adjusted odds ratio 1.70 [95% CI 1.09e2.65], P ¼ 0.02). The following 3 interview themes were identified: time, company policy, and red flags. Conclusion: PDMP has value to pharmacists of all practice settings studied. Frequent PDMP use may facilitate more pharmacist interventions, such as a naloxone prescription. Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of the American Pharmacists Association.

Health Information Technology and Doctor Shopping: A Systematic Review

“…These are presented in Table 2 . Table 1 and Table 2 lists articles in reverse chronological order: 2020 (1) [ 26 ], 2019 (7) [ 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 ], 2018 (4) [ 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 ], 2017 (3) [ 38 , 39 , 40 ], 2016 (7) [ 17 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 ], 2015 (4) [ 15 , 47 , 48 , 49 ], 2014 (3) [ 11 , 14 , 50 ], 2013 (2) [ 51 , 52 ], 2012 (4) [ 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 ], 2011 (6) [ 13 , 16 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 ], 2010 (1) [ 61 ].…”

“…In the interest of brevity, only the top 90% are described. The intervention PDMP (state-run prescription drug monitoring program or interviews/surveys about PDMP) appeared in 15/42 articles (36%) [ 13 , 26 , 28 , 31 , 38 , 39 , 41 , 43 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 60 ]. These articles all originated from the United States because that is the only country that uses PDMP.…”

“…A key point made by one article is that the control programs like PDMP do nothing to treat the disease of addiction driving the behavior [34]. This author mentioned that unless control programs institute treatment [26], doctor shoppers will find other means of finding their illicit drugs to misuse.…”

Mapping the research addressing prescription drug monitoring programs: A scoping review

“…Overall, half of the studies involved patients [9,18,22–24,26,27,32,34,36–38,41–43,45,46,48,50,53,54,59,62,63,65,66,71,73,75,77–80,84–86,88,90,93,95,97,98,100,101,104,105,108–110,115–118,121,123,125,130,131,134,140,144,146,147,149,151,152,154–156,158,159,161,163,165,167] and 47% included health‐care providers [11,19,20,25,29,30,33,35,37,39,40,43,44,49,51,54–61,67–69,71,72,74,76,80–83,87,91,93,94,96,102,103,106,111–114,119,120,122,124,125,127,128,130,132,133,136–139,141,143,145,147,148,150,153,157,160,162,165]. Some studies included both patient and provider populations [36, 37, 54, 59, 80, 93, 130, 147, 166].…”

“…Overall, half of the studies involved patients [9,18,[22][23][24]26,27,32,34,[36][37][38][41][42][43]45,46,48 [111][112][113][114]119,120,122,124,125,127,128,130,132,133,[136][137][138][139]141,143,145,147,148,150,153,157,160,162,165]. Some studies included both patient and provider populations [36,37,54,59,…”