During the past year, South Dakota health care providers have worked diligently to advance initiatives aimed at improving the focus and attention on the Prescription Opioid Abuse Prevention Initiative. The work has been supported through a federal grants and legislative action from passage of Senate Bill 1 and Senate Bill 4.
In November the number of Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) registrations reached 95 percent. This represents a dramatic improvement from 24 percent in September 2016. SB 1 included the requirement that all opioid prescribers must register in the state’s PDMP. The goal is to achieve 100 percent participation through continued involvement of the Department of Health and the appropriate prescriber boards assisting with these efforts.
As a part of SB 4, the Board of Pharmacy is required to submit an annual report in January to the Senate and House Health and Human services committees. Among other information, the report includes PDMP trending data and other opioid statistics used to measure South Dakota’s efforts. Early indications reveal a downward trend in opioid prescribing reflective of November data which shows 113,463 total prescriptions written with 42.10 percent being opioids. The opioid prescription percentage trend from 2013 to present was 45.11 percent.
As a part of the ongoing focus, work efforts will shift to include assisting prescribers with PDMP queries. The number of queries has increased by nearly 55,000 since 2015. PDMP users can expect to see several enhancements in both the data available and notifications to strengthen the user’s experience.
