National Estimates and Physician-Reported Impacts of Prescription Drug Monitoring Program Use

Background Despite widespread adoption of state prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs), it is unclear how often PDMPs are accessed through an electronic health record system (EHR-PDMP integration), or whether efforts to make PDMPs easier to access and use have improved their utility. Objective To produce national-level estimates on the use of PDMPs among office-based physicians and benefits associated with their use. Design We use nationally representative survey data to produce descriptive statistics on PDMP use and associated benefits among office-based physicians in the USA. Participants 1398 office-based physicians who prescribe controlled substances. Main Measures We examined physician-reported ease and frequency of PDMP use, and how EHR-PDMP integration affects frequency and ease of use. Multivariate models were used to assess whether characteristics of PDMP use were related to physician-reported benefits such as reduced prescribing of controlled substances and perceived improvements in clinical decision-making. Key Results In 2019, two-thirds of office-based physicians in the USA reported frequent use of their state PDMP and over three-quarters reported they were easy to use. Both frequency and ease of use were positively correlated with PDMP integration status. Respondents who frequently checked their state's PDMP were 8.7 percentage points (95% CI -.4 to 17.8) more likely to report perceived benefits and reported 2.2 (95% CI 1.54 to 2.83) more benefits. Respondents who indicated their PDMP was easy to use were 12.7 percentage points (95% CI .040 to .214) more likely to report perceived benefits and reported 0.94 (95% CI 0.26 to 1.61) more benefits. Conclusions Our findings suggest efforts to make PDMPs easier to access and use aided physicians in making informed clinical decisions that may not be captured by reduced prescribing alone. Efforts to further increase frequency and ease of use-including advancing a standards-based approach to PDMP and EHR data interoperability-may further increase the benefit of PDMPs.

Automated summary

This study provides national-level estimates on the use of prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) among office-based physicians in the USA and examines the associated benefits. The findings suggest that both frequency and ease of use of PDMPs are positively correlated with PDMP integration status. Efforts to make PDMPs easier to access and use have contributed to informed clinical decision-making and may provide additional benefits beyond reducing prescribing.