 |
INSPECT, Indiana’s prescription drug monitoring program, has released a new reporting tool that allows physicians to see their controlled substance prescribing history compared to their peers. The report will be released to physicians quarterly and includes data for Schedule II-V drugs reported to INSPECT by dispensers and pharmacies during the specified reporting period. Physicians who qualify to receive the report are those who have an active INSPECT account and who have written at least one opioid, sedative or stimulant prescription in the previous six months. The first distributed report covered prescriptions written and dispensed from Oct. 1, 2019 to March 31, 2020 and showed how many patients filled that prescription from the physician. This report can then be compared with other physicians in the same specialty. The Indiana PMP Prescribing Report aligns with an Indiana State Medical Association’s policy that encourages INSPECT to share de-identified data with providers to allow them to compare their prescribing information to other providers. Click here to view the user guide for more information on the new prescribing reports.
 |
The Division of Trauma and Injury Prevention at the Indiana Department of Health has published a new toolkit with resources on traumatic brain injury and opioid use. The impact of the opioid epidemic is well-known, with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) estimating in 2015 that 11.5 million adults in the United States misused or were dependent on opioids. According to researchers from the Rehabilitation Hospital of Indiana in the Journal of Neurotrauma, people with a history of traumatic brain injury (TBI) may be as many as 11 times more likely to die from accidental fatal poisoning as compared to the general population, with opioids the attributed cause in a significant proportion of cases. The overriding goals of this toolkit are, therefore, to promote awareness of this risk, and to give people with TBI, their families and caregivers, and provides tools to prevent opioid overdose. The toolkit is divided into five sections: Patient and Family Resources, Provider Resources, TBI and Opioid Use Webinars, Repository of Resources from Outside Agencies, and Repository of Primary Literature. More resources will be added, so check back frequently for updates. Click here to view the new toolkit.
 Centerstone, a not-for-profit community health organization, has been awarded a four-year, $3.4 million Comprehensive Opioid Recovery Center (CORC) grant from SAMHSA. It was only one of two organizations across the entire United States to receive this funding. Centerstone plans to use the grant to open a center that will provide a complete range of treatment for those with substance use disorder. This grant also provides the organization with the ability to serve Indiana residents from Jackson, Bartholomew, Decatur, Jefferson, Jennings, Lawrence, Monroe, Morgan and Scott counties. Centerstone reports that these counties have been hardest hit by the opioid epidemic, with six of the nine listed counties having higher than state average overdose deaths. They also estimate that more than 30,000 people in these counties who are suffering from a substance use disorder have not received adequate treatment, something the CORC hopes to mitigate. The CORC is expected to be open by September 2020 in Bloomington, Indiana and will offer services including outpatient care, residential care, medication-assisted treatment, expanded recovery housing options and a variety of intervention services. For more information about the Centerstone CORC, call 1-877-HOPE123 (877-467-3123).
|
