Opioid Management Perception 2018
EMR Vendors Being Pushed to Center Stage

The State of Opioid Stewardship:

A Few Organizations Leading Out; Most Are Still in the Dark

Two-thirds of interviewed organizations label themselves “novices” or “beginners” when it comes to opioid stewardship. Only seven consider themselves “advanced,” meaning they have multiple strategies and technologies in place to directly combat opioid misuse. Advanced organizations report that a multifaceted approach—consisting of internal rules, technology partners, alternative treatment options, EPCS, and proper legislation—is necessary for effective opioid stewardship. Organizations that take such an approach have realized gains in their fight against opioid misuse. In technology decisions, less advanced organizations often consider non-integrated, best-of-breed solutions, while more advanced organizations are much more likely to be counting on their core EMR vendor to deliver the new technology and enhancements needed to prevent and treat opioid misuse. These organizations have high expectations that their EMR vendors will deliver within the next year.

Which Vendors Are Best Positioned to Help Solve the Opioid Crisis?

Regardless of size or stage of advancement, organizations overwhelmingly expect their EMR vendors to step up and partner with them to help solve the opioid crisis. The EMR is the ideal tool for tackling many problems inherent to opioid misuse since its central position within an organization’s technology structure allows physicians to complete stewardship tasks without going outside their standard workflows.

Organizations with less developed stewardship programs are more likely than those with advanced programs to seek out best-of-breed vendors, such as Appriss Health, Surescripts, DrFirst, and others. Appriss Health’s technology undergirds most states’ PDMPs (prescription drug monitoring programs), and they are the third-party vendor most often identified as being used for identifying addiction at the point of care and monitoring for problematic prescribing habits.

For help monitoring for possible drug diversion, organizations are more likely to feel that their current pharmacy-specific vendors—such as Omnicell, BD, and Medacist—are better positioned than EMR vendors.

Care management for those already addicted is an area ripe for disruption by vendors who can provide good technology for directing care management efforts. Most respondents struggled to identify a vendor that they feel is currently well positioned to do this, with most falling back on their EMR vendor as the only vendor they could name.

Organizations expect their EMRs to integrate directly with state PDMPs and to provide opioid-specific clinical decision support and tool sets that are incorporated directly into physicians’ EMR workflows. KLAS validated that several organizations (in various states) have achieved direct integration with PDMPs. Clinical leaders say this integration has greatly enhanced their ability to identify at-risk patients.