For Hub City Times

MARSHFIELD — Marshfield Clinic is partnering with Appriss Inc. to include opiate prescription histories into its electronic health records (EHR), built and developed by Marshfield Clinic Information Services Inc. (MCIS), to improve patient safety and combat prescription drug abuse and diversion.

MCIS is the first ambulatory vendor in Wisconsin to integrate the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) into its EHR. MCIS, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Marshfield Clinic Health System, has been continuously developing the EHR for over 30 years.

Appriss, a leading technology provider for risk assessment and analytics in public safety and health care, supplied tools that indicate patient opiate prescription histories in real time at the point of care. This heightened accessibility is expected to increase prescription monitoring data usage.

Physicians and pharmacists now log into separate websites to retrieve a patient’s opiate prescriptions and then cross-reference them with the patient’s health information in other systems. At Marshfield Clinic, Appriss integration will provide instant access to all patient data within the EHR.

A health concern in Wisconsin, heroin and prescription painkiller use puts people at risk of opioid overdose. In 2013 more Wisconsin residents died from drug overdoses than motor vehicle accidents, suicide, or firearms, according to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.

“Keeping a close eye on patients’ opiate prescription history is important in making sure they’re prescribed the correct dosage to not only improve their health but to prevent an adverse event,” said Dr. Eric Penniman, Marshfield Clinic medical director for primary care.

“By providing prescription monitoring data directly at the point of care, Marshfield Clinic has taken a major step towards improving patient safety in Wisconsin,” said Ken Cassell, vice president of business development at Appriss. “Real-time monitoring also saves valuable minutes for providers, helping to ensure the best standard of care for all patients.”

“Our Marshfield Clinic physicians have overwhelmingly embraced Appriss’ mission of improving prescribing confidence,” Penniman said. “Having access to prescription monitoring data directly from within the medication prescribing program has been significant for our physicians, and they are universally grateful for this EHR tool.”