Users of Maryland’s PDMP now have access to other states’ data
Drug monitoring helpful in tracking prescriptions, as MD fights opioid epidemic
Baltimore, MD (August 4, 2015) – Maryland's Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) gives health care providers and public health and safety authorities a powerful tool in the state’s battle against the heroin and opioid epidemic gripping the region. Starting this week, health care providers are now able to access out-of-state PDMP data.
“Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan and Lt. Governor Boyd Rutherford have made responding to this substance-abuse crisis a priority,” said Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH) Secretary Van T. Mitchell. “The expansion of PDMP data access to other states’ information will strengthen providers’ ability to identify patients whose prescription drug use presents a serious risk of addiction or overdose.”
PDMP data from other states will be available to registered Maryland PDMP clinical users through the Chesapeake Regional Information System for our Patients (CRISP), the health information exchange serving Maryland and the District of Columbia. A new clinical user interface tab within the CRISP Clinical Query Portal called “Interstate PDMP” has been developed in response to user feedback aimed at enabling providers to more easily view and analyze this data for clinical decision-making. Users can view the data in a sortable table and can print the data as a PDF.
Out-of-state data access will begin with Virginia, expanding to other neighboring states and states of interest. Maryland connects to other state PDMPs through PMP InterConnect (PMPi), an interstate data-sharing hub hosted by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) in conjunction with its IT partner, Appriss. Maryland is the 30th state to connect with the PMPi hub. PMPi enables each state to configure connections with other individual states at the user level, ensuring compliance with home-state statutes, regulations and policies. Also, coming in the near future will be the abilities to view and to print the Maryland PDMP information within the same Interstate PDMP tab’s view and format as the out-of-state PDMP data.
Authorized by state law in 2011, Maryland’s PDMP was created to support health care providers and their patients in the safe and effective use of prescription drugs. Nearly every state in the country now has a PDMP. Maryland’s program is administered by the DHMH Behavioral Health Administration. The PDMP law requires pharmacies and health care practitioners that dispense Schedule II-V controlled dangerous substances (CDS) to electronically report prescription information to the PDMP.
The PDMP securely stores the data and makes them available to health care providers to support patient care. Maryland providers currently able to view Maryland PDMP data, including CDS prescribers (i.e., physicians, dentists, nurse practitioners, physician assistants and podiatrists), pharmacists, and their licensed health care professional delegates (i.e., nurses, pharmacy techs, social workers, etc.), do not need to make any changes to their currently active CRISP account in order to view out-of-state PDMP data. Providers not yet registered with CRISP to access PDMP data may complete the process on the CRISP website:
https://crisphealth.org/.
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The Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is the state government agency that protects Maryland’s public health and also works to help Marylanders make better health decisions for better health outcomes. Stay connected: www.twitter.com/MarylandDHMH and www.facebook.com/MarylandDHMH. 
