A new report from Protenus, a data analytics company, zoomed in on clinical drug diversion and its impact on the healthcare system.
Protenus’ report is based on 179 incidents of medication tampering, theft or fraud reported in the news between January 1 and June 30, 2018. The Baltimore-based organization defined drug diversion as “the transfer of drugs by healthcare workers from a legal use to an illicit one.”
The analysis found 18.7 million pills and $164 million were lost due to drug diversion during the first half of this year. This compares to Protenus’ previous report, which found 20.9 million pills and $301.1 million were lost because of diversion incidents throughout all of 2017.
In other words, drug diversion isn’t going away anytime soon.
“Unfortunately, we continue to see drug diversion incidents get worse,” Protenus co-founder and president Robert Lord said in a phone interview.
Information on the type of site where the diversion event happened was available for 160 of the 179 incidents in 2018. Approximately 31.88 percent of the incidents occurred in a hospital or medical setting, and 29.38 percent happened in a private practice setting. Around 17.5 percent of the events occurred in pharmacies.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
The report also took a closer look at who was involved in each incident. Information on the role of diverters was available for all 179 incidents. Doctors were the most common diverters, as they were involved in 42.46 percent of events. Nurses were the second most common, playing a role in 28.49 percent of incidents. This signals a change from 2017, when doctors were involved in 26.32 percent of events and nurses were involved in 41 percent.
Though drug diversion incidents occur across a variety of locations and involve numerous individuals, they aren’t always detected right away. According to Protenus, the average time between an incident occurring and it being discovered was a little over two years. The lengthiest event thus far this year went undetected for 120 months and involved a pain management doctor who gained $14 million from a pill mill operation.
Overall, drug diversion impacts so many facets and stakeholders in the healthcare system, Lord pointed out. For one, it can seriously put patients at risk of harm. Diversion also causes providers to be impaired, not to mention regulatory issues and a PR nightmare for facilities involved.
Much like its Breach Barometers, Protenus’ drug diversion report is intended to shed light on a problem healthcare knows is there but has trouble solving, Lord noted.
“I hope it helps hospitals frame the problem and articulate it to their leadership,” he said.
Technology alone can’t solve the diversion problem, but having tech systems in place can help review transactions and detect potential issues. Lord also said it’s important for healthcare organizations to change their culture and rethink how they frame and handle drug diversion.
Photo: Stas_V, Getty Images
