Source: Ohio Board of Pharmacy
- On August 28: Updates to OARRS Patient Alerts (see below for more information)
- On Thursday, September 4: Launch of MOUD Clarity – OARRS Patient Reports will include information on patients who may be experiencing medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) treatment discontinuation. This information is intended to support a more comprehensive assessment by healthcare professionals, which may lead to more timely care coordination efforts. For more information, visit the Ohio Board of Pharmacy (OBP) website.
- On Wednesday, September 24: Launch of Co-Rx Clarity – OARRS Patient Reports will include information on patients who may meet criteria in the Ohio Administrative Code that require a provider to offer a prescription for an overdose reversal medication (such as naloxone). For more information, visit the OBP website.
Updates to OARRS Patient Alerts
Patient Alerts (also referred to as Clinical Alerts) are an OARRS enabled enhancement that provides alerts to prescribers to indicate that one of their patients has met or exceeded a threshold as determined by the OBP.
These alerts are meant to aid healthcare professionals in identifying patients who may have higher or unexpected exposure to controlled substances and consider a supportive conversation between the provider and patient.
IMPORTANT: Patient Alerts are not meant to indicate illegal or inappropriate behavior and are not meant to replace clinical decision-making.
- Consolidated Prescriber & Dispenser Threshold Alert – When a patient receives controlled substance prescriptions from multiple prescribers, drug interactions can occur, especially if providers are unaware of the other medications the patient has received.The Prescriber & Dispenser Threshold alert occurs when a patient fills controlled substance prescriptions written by a specified number of prescribers, filled at a specified number of pharmacies, within a specified amount of time. The number of prescribers, pharmacies, and timeframe are determined by the PDMP.The Patient Alerts for prescriber and dispenser thresholds are now consolidated into a single indicator when the patient receives a prescription for a controlled substance from three or more prescribers and three or more dispensers in 90 day time period.
Prior to this change, there were two separate Patient Alerts indicating a patient had received opioid or sedative prescriptions from five or more providers or from four or more pharmacies in the previous two years.
- Daily Active Morphine Milligram Equivalents (MME) Threshold – Prescribing the lowest effective dose of opioids can be an effective strategy to reduce the risk of overdose or development of opioid use disorder, and providers should use caution when increasing a patient’s daily opioid dose above the recommended daily MME dosage unless there are specific extenuating circumstances. The Daily Active MME Threshold alert occurs when a patient receives a cumulative daily opioid dosage greater than 50 MME. Prior to this change, a Patient Alert would appear if a patient exceeded a total MME of 100 and a 40 MME/day average.
View the OBP August newsletter.