California CURES PDMP: What is it, and how does it benefit interoperability?
The USA had faced one of the worst opioid epidemics when the overdose rate from opioid substances quadrupled between the years 1999 to 2015. To ensure that such an atrocity does not occur again, California started the CURES initiative in 2016.
It was to help healthcare officials and enforcement authorities keep a better eye on the consumption of controlled substances.
What Is California CURES PDMP?
The program’s CURES, or Controlled Substance Utilization Review and Evaluation System, is a database consisting of registered users prescribed schedule II, III, and IV prescription drugs.
It is also used to keep track of said drugs being dispensed in California through the PDMP initiative.
The Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) is a system incorporated by the California Department of Justice to monitor and control the use of prescription drugs. The system allows registered users access to prescribed medications. And the dispenser to provide the controlled substance by making the patient history available to all involved parties.
The PDMP program has now been incorporated in 49 States, excluding Missouri.
That also helps law enforcement and monitoring authorities to keep track of patients’ intake history. And ensure that no abuse of the controlled substance has been committed.
How Is CURES PDMP Used?
Starting from October 2, 2018, consultation with CURES has been made mandatory before ordering, administrating, or furnishing a request for schedule II, III, and IV prescription drugs.
To use the CURES PDMP program, you would first need to register with CURES 2.0. However, for licensed prescribers, the register was made compulsory back in July 2016. If you are a newly licensed practitioner, you need to get registered ASAP.
To get registered with CURES, you would need,
A valid email address on which you are comfortable receiving CURES-related correspondence.
State license information, which will be verified with the State’s authorization and regulatory board.
If you are a prescriber, you would need to present your federal DEA license information, verified by the Drug Enforcement Agency.
Once you receive an email from the Department Of Justice verifying the registration, you can access the CURES 2.0 database via their official login.
How Does PDMP Benefit Interoperability?
With the incorporation of PDMP within the CURES initiative, the interoperability of the healthcare industry has increased. That has been accomplished because PDMP has excellent synergy with EHR. And the integration of PDMP with EHR can allow for a much more agile process.
And with the incorporation of PDMP across 49 states, interoperability has been further enhanced as physicians and prescribers can tell if a patient has been administered any controlled substance across most of the states in the past 12 months. That has proven to be an asset of utmost importance, especially in the case of smaller states where crossing the border between states is relatively easy.
The purpose behind the PDMP initiative was to turn states into interoperable entities able to communicate amongst each other to ensure that the opioid epidemic is kept under control by allowing prescribers to make more informed decisions regarding the dispensing of controlled substances.
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