New Resources Announced for Prescription Drug Monitoring Program

Jim Braibish • Jan 24, 2020

The St. Louis County Department of Public Health has announced two important enhancements to the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) that covers much of Missouri including Jackson, Clay and Cass counties in the Kansas City area:

  • Prescribing Summaries will now be sent quarterly to providers in the Missouri jurisdictions covered by the PDMP. The Prescribing Summary breaks down the provider’s prescribing activity and compares it to one’s peers. Summaries are meant to help providers assess their own practice and will not be shared with employers or the public. Any physician, dentist, optometrist or podiatrist who practices in a participating PDMP jurisdiction and has written at least 15 prescriptions for controlled substances in the last quarter will receive a Prescribing Summary. Providers with PDMP accounts will receive their summary online within the PDMP; summaries will be mailed to providers without PDMP accounts. See the Prescribing Summary Packet for more information.
  • Opioid Prescribing and Pain Management Toolbox is a new centralized opioid resource for providers who are prescribing opioids and /or treating patients with pain. The toolbox contains information across six key areas of opioid management: 1) building a supportive patient-provider relationship, 2) screening and assessment, 3) safer prescribing, 4) harm reduction, 5) treatment across health care settings, and 6) training and educational opportunities. Each section highlights evidence-based practices and guidelines to help health care providers deliver compassionate, clinically appropriate pain management and opioid use disorder treatment.  Access the provider toolbox

The St. Louis County Prescription Drug Monitoring Program was launched in 2017 in the absence of a statewide prescription drug monitoring program. Currently, 75 city and county jurisdictions participate in the PDMP, representing 85% of the state population and 94% of health care providers. Besides Kansas City and St. Louis, other larger Missouri cities represented in the program include Cape Girardeau, Columbia, Jefferson City, Joplin, Springfield and St. Joseph. Leading the creation of the PDMP was UMKC School of Medicine alum and anesthesiologist Sam Page, MD, who is now the county executive of St. Louis County.

Missouri is the only state without a prescription drug monitoring program; legislation again has been introduced this year in both houses of the Missouri General Assembly.

See the current PDMP coverage map.

Learn more about the PDMP.

St. Louis Public Radio coverage of the announcement

22 Jan, 2024
To Members of the Kansas City Medical Society: Greetings, My name is Greg Unruh , and I am honored to be the President of the Society for 2024. By way of a short introduction, I practice anesthesiology at the University of Kansas Medical Center. I have been involved in and have held leadership positions in local, state, and national societies of organized medicine throughout the years, both in anesthesiology and non-anesthesiology societies. I was an officer in the Wy-Jo Medical Society when we merged with the Kansas City Medical Society and have remained on the Board throughout all of the reorganization. I am very proud of how far we have come, It has put us in position to speak for physicians on both sides of the state line. We have expanded our Leadership Council, and we have passionate members of our Board of Directors. I want to commend our Immediate Past President, Dr. Carole Freiberger for her leadership in 2023. She provided us with an optimistic, can-do Presidency that advanced the Society and the practice of medicine in the KC area, so thank you Carole! In addition, we have welcomed the steady leadership of our executive director, Mr. Micah Flint. We appreciate him keeping us on track and organizing our many activities. Several of the things I mention will be dealt with in more detail throughout this communication, but I wanted to highlight some the several areas the Board has chosen for our work this coming year: Advocacy We want to advocate on both sides of the state line working with both the Missouri State Medical and Kansas Medical Societies (MMSA and KMS) on behalf of physicians. On the Kansas side, the legislature is working on many issues that affect us including scope of practice, vaccinations, Medicaid reimbursement and Medicaid expansion. We are working with KMS to provide testimony and influence our legislative representatives. Support for our Foundation We want to support our crown jewel whole heartedly, the Kansas City Medical Society Foundation which continues to be a model for advocacy and education, as well as our charitable care program which provides immense benefits for our uninsured or under insured patients. The Foundation supported expansion of Medicaid on the Missouri side and is advocating tirelessly for expansion on the Kansas side. Ms. Karole Bradford is our Executive Director. Opioid abuse We have been working to help stem the tide of opioid abuse through education and visibility. We are in the process of putting together TikTok videos about the dangers of opioid abuse produced by local high school students and targeted at high school students at their level and their preferred communication platform. We also have activities targeted to school district officials and several of our Board members and members provide advice around opioid use disorder and school policies. Wellness and Suicide Prevention Our focus has been on removing the stigma that sometimes attaches to physicians help-seeking. We have been advocating for health systems and hospitals to remove credentialing language that could impede a physician from seeking help. Several systems are reviewing their language and are now trying to focus on current, not historical, mental health issues or substance use that could affect safe practice. We are also working to participate in Physician Suicide Awareness Day in September. Welcoming New Members If you are a current member, thank you! I hope you have found our activities to be meaningful for you and your practice. Please consider asking your colleagues to join our collective voices. If you are not a member, please consider joining-we’d love to have you! In conclusion, I’m excited about the year to come and look forward to hearing any and all thoughts and ideas for the Society moving forward. Thanks, and best regards, Greg
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