Strategies to Monitor Prescribing Drug Programs for Reducing Overdose of Opioid Drugs

This article discusses strategies to monitor prescribing drug programs for reducing overdose of opioid drugs. It highlights the importance of prescription drug monitoring programs in reducing death rates and provides ways to monitor prescribing programs.

Running head: HEALTH CARE MANAGEMENT
Health care management
Name of the student:
Name of the university
Author note:

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Opioid Overdose
Over the past two decades, the number of opioid pain relievers used in the United States
rose dramatically, which killed nearly 183,000 people in the USA between 1999 to 2015. This
paper will illustrate strategies to monitor prescribing drug programs with the assistance of a peer-
reviewed journal in the following paragraph.
Summary of the article:
The study stated that prescription of drug monitoring programs is an effective tool to
evaluate the prescription of the overdose worldwide. In the article, Bao et al. (2016), collected
the data of survey for assessing the influence of the opioid drugs, monitoring prescription
program along with medications of pain management, in the clinical care setting for patient
centric care. The study found out that prescribing drug-monitoring program reduces the rate of
Opioid drugs that prescribed to patients. In the article, Bao et al. (2016), found out that to address
the opioid overdose, the centre of disease control and prevention is increasing its support to the
state, tribes and territory and non-government organizations working to prevent an opioid-related
overdose of the diseases. The study highlighted that prescription drug monitoring programs in
the quality management team effectively reduce the death rates in the individuals. The study help
in addressing the issues by providing the strategies to monitor prescribing programs for reducing
overdose of the drug.
Critical management issues:
Drug use and overdoses of opioid drugs continued to be the critical public health
problem, which leads to the injury related death that is influenced by factors such as the number
of the people exposed to the drugs, availability of alternative treatment. Dowell, Haegerich and

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Chou (2016), report suggested that in 2015 the rural overdose death rates have been higher
compared to 2006. The risk of opioid overdose includes mental disorders, pulmonary oedema,
and permanent brain damage. it further contributed to the maximization of mortality rate.
Purpose:
The purpose of the study is to provide a way by which the hospital can monitor
prescription of drug programs which is a part of the quality department.
Functions:
Monitor prescribing drug programs as a part of the quality department will aid in
determining the doctors who are involved in the illegal practice and numbers of other issues that
can be mitigated with proper follow up.
Strategies:
The strategies can be used in this case is increased adherence to the evidence-based
prescribing practice for primary care clinicians to treat patients with chronic pain. Moreover, in
order to monitor the prescription of drugs, the data can be collected from the dispensaries a
reporting information from the databases to authorized users can be used. State wide databases
can be used for tracking the prescriptions of the doctors to each patient in order to assess whether
the medications are legal or illegal. The individual questionnaire can be used for both the
hospital management members and patients who are seeking help from the health professionals
in order to monitor the prescribing drug program. Moreover, in order to track the prescribing
drug monitoring programs, Electronic health records can be used for the understanding relative
risk of the patients and prescribing the drugs.

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Performance measurements:
The performance measurement of the different employee is crucial for monitoring the
prescribing drugs in order to reduce the overdose. Therefore, the performance of different
department of health care sectors should be evaluate by using control charts and benchmark
techniques. Moreover, the appraisal can be used for every employee for understanding how well
each employee is performing and cooperating in the program, for reducing the prevalence of
opioid overdose.

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Reference:
Bao, Y., Pan, Y., Taylor, A., Radakrishnan, S., Luo, F., Pincus, H.A. and Schackman, B.R.,
2016. Prescription drug monitoring programs are associated with sustained reductions in
opioid prescribing by physicians. Health Affairs, 35(6), pp.1045-1051.
doi: [10.1377/hlthaff.2015.1673]
Dowell, D., Haegerich, T.M. and Chou, R., 2016. CDC guideline for prescribing opioids for
chronic pain—United States, 2016. Jama, 315(15), pp.1624-1645.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2503508