Puerto Rico Presciption Drug Monitoring Program (PR-PDMP)

The PR-PDMP was implemented in 2018 under PR Law 70 of 2017. Efforts were directed to attend the PR opioid alert, adding Prescriber Report Cards, Advanced Analytics, Clinical Alerts and RxCheck. The proposed grant will be used to maintain the Red Flags Project, and create educational campaigns targeted to patients, prescribers and pharmacists on benefits of EHR integration, reducing overdose events in patients and increasing prescribers’ compliance. In the first two years, efforts were directed to policy changes enabling the establishment and dissemination of the PDMP primarily among pharmacies to ensure registration in the system, achieving that 98% of the PR pharmacies of PR are integrated and reporting regularly. The PMP Aware, a computerized account registration system, as of May 2022, reflected 5,293 registered users, of which 2,943 were pharmacists or pharmacy personnel, 2,255 prescribers, 70 representatives of law-and-order agencies, and 25 other users that include administrative personnel, Social Workers, and SA Counsellors. Since its implementation, in collaboration with professional associations of PR, training on the use and management of the PDMP has been given throughout the Island, impacting more than 6,000 professionals. Need for continued PDMP use and development is reflected by data showing 17,088,265 controlled medications prescriptions dispensed from May, 2018 to May, 2022. The proposed FY 2022 PDMP application proposes the summarized goals of 1) Increasing PR-PDMP capacity to detect/prevent diversion and misuse of opioids and other prescription drugs by continuing the implementation of the Red Flag Project, and 2) Enhancing awareness in patients and BH professionals about benefits of the PDMP and the risks of an overdose when combining prescriptions through public campaigns. Objectives include reducing by 20% overdose events reflected in Red Flag data; increasing knowledge of overdose risks in 250 patients overusing prescriptions; instructing 1,500 physicians on PDMP use for decision making; registering 750 new physician users; developing an educational campaign to patients, and another to 150 physicians and pharmaceutics per year on benefits of the PDMP and EHR integration. MHAASA will collaborate with enforcement and service providers and apply the EBP’s for Epidemiological Analysis, Increasing PDMP Utilization and Interstate Data Sharing over a 36-month period to achieve these goals and objectives.