What is TXPMP and why do we have to use it?
Beginning March 1, 2020, pharmacists and prescribers (other than a veterinarian) will be required to check the patient’s TXPMP history before dispensing or prescribing opioids, benzodiazepines, barbiturates, or carisoprodol.
The Texas Prescription Monitoring Program (TXPMP) collects and monitors prescription data for all Schedule II, III, IV, and V Controlled Substances dispensed by a pharmacy in Texas or to a Texas resident from a pharmacy located in another state. The TXPMP also provides a database for monitoring patient prescription history for practitioners and the ordering of Texas Schedule II Official Prescription Forms.
Pharmacists and prescribers are to check the TXPMP to help eliminate duplicate and overprescribing of controlled substances, as well as to obtain critical controlled substance history information.
So how do we as Dentists and Oral Surgeons prepare our office and our teams for this?
You should decide if you want to run the patient TXPMP reports yourself or have your clinical team do it.
1. Register with TXPMP Aware, you can register yourself or a team member you trust to start an account. Each provider must have their own account.
2. After you sign up, review the website, it’s recommended to watch the training videos.
3. Run a report on patients that you will be prescribing opioids, benzodiazepines, barbiturates, or carisoprodol.
4. If you have decided to run the patient reports yourself, then make sure you document it into the patient EMR or chart. If you have a paperless office you can upload the report into a PDF and save to the patient record or if you use charts, then you may print it and file in the patient’s chart. Either way, you legally have to document and have proof that you ran the report.
5. If you decide to have your clinical team member or members run the reports then make sure you train them properly.
6. Watch the NarxCare training video on the website. This will help you decide what score your comfortable with prescribing narcotics at. For example: In our practice, our surgical assistants run the reports, upload them into the patient EMR and record the “PMP score” onto the Preoperative anesthesia checklist (which you all should be using by law in Texas). Our “red flag” score is 440. When the surgeons see this, they then go into the patient chart and view the prescription history of the patient before prescribing any narcotics.
7. When running the report, if results come up as 0, then simply make a note in the patient EMR/Chart stating you ran a TXPMP report with no results.
Good luck to you and your teams. It turns out to be a simple process!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Based in Houston, TX, Wendy Lauren has 17 years of oral surgery clinical experience and is CPR/DAANCE/TexasRDA certified. She is the Director of Clinical Operations with Oral Surgery Management, a firm that advances practices to excellence through the delivery of oral surgery systems.
