Electronic Pharmacotherapy Risk Management

Overview

The purpose of the Utah ePRM (electronic Pharmacotherapy Risk Management) project is to improve quality and safety of medication use while simultaneously controlling costs and detecting fraud and abuse.

The ePRM project has two objectives: 1. Refine and implement a computerized surveillance and trigger tool to support medication therapy and risk management services. The ePRM tool will be used to (1) identify potential drug-therapy problems, which include quality, safety and cost-related problems; (2) select patients and providers for in-depth clinical reviews and possibly direct intervention (i.e., letter, phone call, Medication Therapy Management Services (MTMS), or Academic Detailing); (3) identify potential fraud and diversion of controlled substances; and (4) track patterns of medication use and evaluate ePRM performance, identify improvements, and direct policy change. 2. Conduct innovative multi-pronged interventions that are guided by the ePRM trigger tool. Clinical areas chosen for review include diabetes therapy, hypertension, asthma, antipsychotic therapy, pain management (opioid narcotics and anticonvulsants) and anticoagulation/antiplatelet drugs. Interventions in these areas will address potential under and overuse, or patient safety concerns. Clinical pharmacists and physicians will implement five types of inter-related interventions: a) provider level reviews, which includes prescribers' profiling and feedback for outlier prescribers; b) patient level reviews and letters to prescribers for high-risk patients; c) phone consultation and Academic Detailing with outlier prescribers; d) MTMS; and e) detecting and pursuing suspected fraud and abuse cases.

Conditions

Interventions

Eligibility

Locations (1)