Enhancing and Maintaining GA's Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) will positively impact statewide communication, increase access to health data, and establish shared accountability.

Georgia Department of Public Health (GDPH) seeks grant funding to support the GA Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) to monitor the prescribing and dispensing of controlled substances for the purpose of reducing overdoses attributed to prescription drugs.

Since 2017, the state of Georgia has been proactive in addressing the prescription drug crisis by implementing a requirement for dispensers to enter controlled substance prescription information within 24 hours, ensuring more efficient access to crucial patient information for prescribers. Despite these efforts, Georgia continues to face a concerning rise in drug overdose deaths. In 2021, there were 2,412 reported drug overdose deaths, with 1,693 attributed to opioids. Georgia witnessed a staggering 48% increase in fentanyl-involved overdose deaths. Notably, there was a decrease in the prescribing of opioids, benzodiazepines, and stimulants between 2020 and 2021 by 8%, 14%, and 8%, respectively.

GDPH’s Opioid and Substance Misuse Response program has maintained several features embedded within the functionality of the GDPH PDMP. PMP AWARxe improves the practices of prescribers and dispensers of opioids with timely access to patient information; RxCheck prevents opioid misuse across state lines; Clinical Alerts improves central messaging for prescribers and dispensers; consolidation/deconsolidation accurately matches patient data with their prescription history; Prescriber report cards create shared accountability in opioid prescribing within Georgia. Additionally, GDPH conducts an Integration survey and Prescriber User Survey to understand integration within EHR systems and the overall quality of the PDMP.

This project will yield a more robust GA PDMP system. This will be done by introducing several additional features. Enhancing Georgia’s ability to send and receive data from other states via Memorandums of Understanding. The introduction of ERvive will include EMS (ICD-10) data to assess additional risk factors; the introduction of low THC data will match medical marijuana product information to patient dispensations; the introduction of MOUD data will improve patient care by providing clinicians with additional insight into a patient’s SUD treatment history; neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) data matching will be used to determine the rate of opioid, benzodiazepine, and stimulant prescriptions among pregnant mothers.

The DPH opioid team will expand the usability of the GA PDMP system with appropriate modules. Improving specific PDMP functionalities and linking non-PDMP data will drive the implementation of the most appropriate evidence-based strategies for preventing overprescribing of controlled substances and improving the overall health and well-being of Georgia’s citizens.