Developing a Utah Pharmacotherapy Risk Management System With an Electronic Surveillance Tool (Utah ePRM)

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.