What a PDM Program Can Offer Your Practice

For patients with chronic pain, opioids may offer important relief from suffering and help support activities of daily living. At the same time, if they are not used according to your prescription, opioids can do great harm. A prescription drug monitoring (PDM) program can help you maintain the maximum benefit of a patient’s opioid prescription, while minimizing the risks of misuse.

According to the 2016 Quest Health Trends^TM Report, based on a comprehensive evaluation of over 3.4 million samples between 2011 and 2015, over half of all samples tested showed evidence of drug use inconsistent with the physician’s prescription. Prescribed opioids were found along with benzodiazepines, fentanyl, and other contraindicated and highly dangerous drugs, endangering patient health.

Adding a PDM program to your practice can help you to:

• Monitor your patient treatment plan
• Detect other non-prescribed pain medication(s)
• Manage pain therapy safety and availability for your patients by assisting with regulatory compliance
• Test for other drugs of abuse (cocaine, methamphetamine, etc.)
• Meet state and federal regulations regarding opioid prescription monitoring and compliance

Published date: July 12, 2017