How Organizations Can Lower Their Risks of Diversion
While there will never be a perfect solution to preventing drug diversion 100% of the time, leveraging the right people, processes and technology is our best chance of keeping patients safe.
While there will never be a perfect solution to preventing drug diversion 100% of the time, leveraging the right people, processes and technology is our best chance of keeping patients safe.
Today, 35 states have passed mandates for electronic prescriptions for controlled substances with the aim being to reduce the risk of stolen or forged prescriptions and to prevent patients from ‘doctor shopping’ between states.
Understanding the tools and technology being used throughout the medication pathway, including how RFID supports drug diversion monitoring and prevention, is important now more than ever.
A retrospective study published in American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy found that machine learning and advanced analytics technology not only identifies drug diversion - when drugs are stolen from hospitals - but also that the tech can do so 160 days faster than standard methods, and with a 96.3% accuracy rate.
Unfortunately, too many patients go without prescribed medication because healthcare professionals – a distinct minority but no small number – “divert” the drugs for other uses, often abusing the medication themselves.