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KETTERING — Local hospitals have begun assessing their patients’ prescription drug histories and their potential to abuse those drugs, part of a broader effort to end a local and statewide overdose epidemic.
Montgomery County has an unusually high accidental overdose death rate of 23 per 100,000 people, twice the rate of Ohio’s other urban counties. Last year, 127 people died in the county from unintentional drug overdoses.
In 57 percent of those overdose deaths, prescription opioids and benzodiazepines were present. Benzodiazepines are psychotropic drugs such as antianxiety medications, muscle relaxants, sedatives and hypnotics. Prescription opioids are sedative narcotics containing opium or one of its derivatives.
“People are dying all over the place from this type of stuff, and they’re dying from medicines that doctors are unknowingly dispensing. That’s the real cost we’re trying to curb here,” said Dr. Jim Huizenga, an emergency physician with Kettering Health Network. “I think we’re making an impact.”
Huizenga likens the system, called NARx Check, to a narcotic “credit score” that quickly gives doctors a sense of whether a patient may have the potential to abuse prescription drugs.
Huizenga’s involvement in the project goes beyond using the scores to help inform the care he gives to patients. He and his wife, Kathleen, own Eagle Software Corp. of Beavercreek, through which they are developing the software that computes the scores.
In late September, doctors at Kettering and Sycamore medical centers began using the NARx Check system. Four more local hospitals — Miami Valley, Good Samaritan, Atrium and Fort Hamilton — are expected to begin using the system in January.
Huizenga said the software development has happened quickly thanks to broad support from doctors, hospital administrators, local health systems and state officials. But he said careful attention has been given to avoid pitfalls with the software program.
For example, he said, some patients, such as those with cancer, have good reason to be on multiple prescriptions. The software is sophisticated enough to account for legitimate reasons to have multiple prescriptions, he said.
Bill Winsley, executive director of the Ohio State Board of Pharmacy, said he initially had doubts about the software, but said he’s become a believer.
Especially for emergency rooms, “it looks pretty doggone good,” Winsley said, though he added that the software remains under development.
Winsley said he’s not aware of a similar program elsewhere in the state.
“I really believe that this NARx program could go statewide as early as next year,” said Bryan Bucklew, president and CEO of the Greater Dayton Area Hospital Association.
The NARx software assigns a score below 200 to about 70 percent to 75 percent of patients. A score that low should make a doctor confident that the patient has no prescription drug issues, Huizenga said.
Another 15 percent to 20 percent of patients receive a score of 200 to 500, which should make a doctor curious enough to review a patient’s prescription drug profile, which is linked to Ohio’s prescription monitoring program and can be accessed through NARx Check with a click of the mouse.
A score above 500 should make a doctor cautious in his or her dealings with the patient, Huizenga said.
According to NARx Check, scores were calculated for 115,071 patient registrations at the six hospitals in November. Of those, about 10,053 patient registrations (9 percent) resulted in a score greater than 500.
Eagle Software declined to say how much money it’s receiving from the Greater Dayton Area Hospital Association to develop the software, citing contractual obligations. GDAHA couldn’t immediately provide the amount last week.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-7457 or bsutherly@ DaytonDailyNews.com.
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