Partners HealthCare today has fully integrated the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ Prescription Awareness Tool (MassPAT) directly into it’s Epic electronic health record (EHR) system. The integration marks Partners as the first healthcare network to have the tool immediately available to clinicians at the point-of-care and demonstrating a significant step forward in the Commonwealth’s efforts to align health care providers across Massachusetts on a common platform to monitor opioid prescriptions.
Benefits of MassPAT
Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker signed the historic legislation that created MassPAT in 2016, and Massachusetts was one of the first states in the nation to impose a seven-day limit on first-time prescriptions of opioids to patients and mandate that all prescribers check the prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP) before prescribing Schedule II or III substances. MassPAT is an online tool that promotes safe prescribing and dispensing patterns by allowing prescribers and pharmacists to access their patient’s prescriptive history within the past year.
By viewing a patient’s prescription history in MassPAT, a provider can avoid duplication of drug therapies and coordinate care by communicating with other providers to improve clinical outcomes and overall patient health. Utilization of MassPAT can also enable early identification of potential prescription drug misuse, abuse, or diversion and trigger early intervention.
MassPAT Integration with Epic EHR Benefits
Today, more than two-thirds of Massachusetts residents who died from an opioid-related overdose between 2011 and 2014 had a legal opioid prescription at some point during that time period, according to a recent report conducted by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Non-fatal overdoses in the state also increased by close to 200 percent between 2011 and 2015. Since their inception, PDMPs have proven to be effective in improving the use of controlled substances nationwide. However, integrating PDMP information, analytics, insights, and resources into EHRs and pharmacy management system workflows is a critical step in the progression of optimizing the use of PDMPs.
Partners’ integration of MassPAT into its “Epic” EHR system will further assist prescribers by making a patient’s controlled substance prescription information immediately available to them within the patient’s electronic clinical chart.
“We’re arming our providers with more robust, point-of-care access to the state’s prescription drug monitoring program to support safe and responsible treatment of pain, and to better manage substance use disorder,” said Thomas Sequist, MD, MPH, Chief Quality and Safety Officer at Partners HealthCare. “By viewing a patient’s prescription information in MassPAT, Partners’ providers are better informed about their patient’s medication use, can avoid duplication of drug therapies and can coordinate care by communicating with other prescribers to improve clinical outcomes.”
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