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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Nicole Anspach, 608-266-6795
DSPSNewsroom@wisconsin.gov.
Madison, WI –
Today, the Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services (DSPS)
launched the public statistics dashboard for the Wisconsin Enhanced
Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (WI ePDMP). The dashboard provides
easy-to-use interactive data visualizations for controlled substance
dispensing, ePDMP utilization, and law enforcement alerts. Statistics archives
dating back to the program’s implementation in 2013 are also available on the
dashboard.
“Making this information
readily available to the public is one more way to hold the state, prescribers,
and law enforcement accountable in the fight against prescription drug abuse in
Wisconsin,” said Governor Walker.
Public users can now easily
access dispensing data broken down by county, drug type, drug class, alert
type, demographic, and the overall number of patients with controlled substance
prescriptions dispensed by year. The dashboard also provides WI ePDMP
utilization data by healthcare user type, active user accounts, and utilization
by non-healthcare users including law enforcement, government employees, and
medical examiners. Interactive maps show law enforcement alerts by county and
alert type, as well as the number of law enforcement alerts submitted to the
ePDMP by year.
“The public dashboard is an
important tool that will help us increase awareness and enhance our partnership
with prescribers and law enforcement in the fight against prescription drug
abuse in Wisconsin,” said DSPS Secretary Laura Gutiérrez. “We are proud of the
enhanced capabilities of the ePDMP and are excited to share the statistics
dashboard with the public. The dashboard clearly illustrates the importance of
the ePDMP in helping healthcare professionals make more informed decisions
about prescribing and dispensing controlled substances to patients.”
Wisconsin Attorney General
Brad Schimel added, “If we are going to beat our state’s drug epidemic, it’s
important that everyone know the facts, be it the medical community, law
enforcement, or the public. This effort by our partners at DSPS will help
inform all stakeholders involved. We live in a data-driven society and having
the most up to date opioid prescribing information available will influence the
practices and methods used to fight the drug epidemic in Wisconsin.”
The original Wisconsin PDMP
was deployed in June 2013 and is administered by the Department of Safety and
Professional Services. Since its inception, the PDMP has primarily been a tool
to help healthcare professionals make more informed decisions about their
prescribing and dispensing practices. It also discloses data as authorized by
law to governmental and law enforcement agencies and stores over 48 million
prescription records submitted by over 2,000 pharmacies and dispensing
practitioners.
The WI ePDMP was launched in
January 2017 and allows for value-added healthcare workflow integration, improved
data quality capabilities, and maximized public health and public safety use.
It also contains analytics and visualizations to draw attention to the most
relevant and potentially concerning data in each patient report, such as a high
level of opioid consumption or a dangerous combination of drugs.
In March 2016, 2015 Wisconsin
Act 267 was enacted providing that PDMP reports be released 30 days after the
end of each quarter. The first report released in October 2016 showed that
between July 1 and September 30, 2016, there was a 9.63 percent reduction in
prescriptions and a 9.89 percent reduction in drug doses as compared to the
same period in 2015; an 8.2 million drug dose reduction. Most recently, between
April 1 and June 30, 2017, there was a 9.8 percent reduction in prescriptions
and an 11.9 percent reduction in drug doses as compared to the same period in
2016; a 17.5 million drug dose reduction.
The WI ePDMP contains data
about schedule II-V controlled substance prescriptions reported by pharmacies
that dispense in Wisconsin, including out-of-state pharmacies. Currently, all
dispensers are required by law to submit dispensing data to the PDMP, and law
enforcement agencies are required to submit reports about suspected controlled
substance overdose events and violations of the Controlled Substances Act.
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