Ohio Combats the Opioid Epidemic with a Control Application

Because healthcare workers and pharmacists also must enter data into an Electronic Medical Records (EMR) or fulfillment tool, The State of Ohio’s standalone database resulted in a data redundancy step. The system was not maintained or utilized on a consistent basis, resulting in a lack of oversight and inability to track the abuse or mismanagement of prescriptions.

A small pilot with a local grocery store chain offered proof of concept for the State of Ohio. The pilot integrated data from the chain’s pharmacy fulfillment system with the statewide system. Utilization of the statewide system had been around 16 percent; integrating the fulfillment system into the state-administered database brought utilization to 100 percent.

With the results of the initial pilot, Resultant brought together Ohio Board of Pharmacy and the State CIO to propose a statewide effort that would expand data integration and controlled substance monitoring. We proposed a statewide approach for implementing the contract and deploying the controlled prescription database.