TRENTON, NJ — Attorney General Gurbir Grewal, the Division of Consumer Affairs and the New Jersey Coordinator for Addiction Responses and Enforcement Strategies announced Jan. 16 enhancements to the NJ Prescription Monitoring Program that make it easier for prescribers and pharmacists to identify and manage patients at risk for controlled substance abuse and misuse.
New Jersey prescribers and pharmacists can now track patients’ use of controlled dangerous substances on a new NJ PMP platform that automatically examines the data on file, analyzes it, and generates an interactive, patient-centered report with visual enhancements — including patient risk alerts — to ensure patients are not being overprescribed opioid pain medications that can lead to addiction, overdose and death.
The recently launched “NarxCare” platform is the latest NJ PMP enhancement paid for with funds from the $100 million that the Murphy administration committed to combating the opioid epidemic in fiscal year 2019.
“We’re using the latest technology to fight the opioid crisis, and that includes our new NarxCare platform,” Grewal said. “It is yet another tool as we work to end addiction and save lives.”
New Jersey law requires prescribers and pharmacists to review a patient’s prescription history prior to prescribing and dispensing highly addictive opioid pain medications and other CDS that, when used in conjunction with opioids, can place patients at a higher risk of fatal overdoses. The NarxCare platform makes that job easier by aggregating and analyzing prescription information from providers and pharmacies and presenting the information in color-coded graphics that provide an instant, easy-to-read “visual snapshot” of a patient’s CDS history.
The program automatically provides “clinical alerts” notifying practitioners when a patient’s safety may be at risk, such as when a patient is obtaining or filling CDS prescriptions from multiple prescribers and pharmacies, is receiving daily morphine levels that exceed limits recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is being prescribed opioid and benzodiazepine medications simultaneously, or has been receiving opioid medications for more than 90 consecutive days.
The NarxCare platform also facilitates collaboration and coordination of patient care by enabling direct messaging — including the transmission of documents — among the prescribers and pharmacists who use the NJ PMP, and by allowing users to include “care notes” that add critical patient information to the platform such as history of overdose, specific medication restrictions, caregiver support, and other relevant clinical or social information. Practitioners can also use the NarxCare platform to search for addiction treatment providers in proximity to a patient’s address and to access opioid-related educational materials, which can be printed out and given to patients at the time of a visit.
“For the physicians and pharmacists serving on the front lines of the addiction crisis, this new technology helps them carry out their responsibilities faster, more efficiently and with deeper patient insight,” NJ CARES Director Sharon Joyce said. “Not only will they be able to quickly access information critical to the well-being of their patients, they now have the ability to communicate and collaborate with other medical professionals to ensure patients are receiving the best possible care without being placed at risk. And when a patient is in need of addiction treatment services, they can readily provide available options.”
“These enhancements make the NJ PMP an even more robust and user-friendly clinical tool,” Division of Consumer Affairs acting Director Paul Rodríguez said. “Since the establishment of the NJ PMP in 2011, we have been enhancing and strengthening the program to give prescribers and pharmacists greater ability to prevent the abuse, misuse, and diversion of opioid drugs. As a result of these and other efforts, the number of opioid dosages dispensed in this state has dropped by more than a third over the last five years, with the goal of preventing new addictions from taking root and saving lives.”
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