eStar go-live update: Opioid Order Questions launching May 26
In VUMC’s efforts to enhance and facilitate compliance with the Tennessee Together opioid prescribing laws, New Opioid Prescribing Order Questions will go live in eStar on May 26, 2021. These Opioid Prescribing Order will provide ‘educational soft stops’ (May 26th) followed by ‘functional hard stops’ (June 16th). These actions will first remind, and subsequently require, the ordering prescriber to document the completion of tasks required by the TN Together opioid prescribing laws, the most complicated of which will be to obtain a signed opioid consent from each patient receiving a high-dose (>180MME and 3-days) opioid outpatient prescription prior to discharge from the clinic or hospital.
According to the Tennessee Department of Health’s website, in 2019, there were 5,368,852 opioid prescriptions written and 1,304 fatal opioid overdoses in 2018. To continue VUMC’s mission of providing safe patient care in addition to improving clinician workflows, and as a follow up to the launch of the Tennessee Controlled Substances Monitoring Database (CSMD) that went live on May 12, 2021, the new order questions have been implemented to increase compliance with the TN Together Law on opioid prescribing (§63-1-164).
A short video (less than 2 minutes) has been created as a resource for prescribers highlighting this new eStar feature. To view the Opioid Order Questions video click here. A Learning Exchange module titled, “How to prescribe opioids in eStar” (click here) has been created and additional resources on opioid prescribing can be found on the Opioid and Controlled Substances Reference Information for VUMC Employees website (click here).
The requirements that will be implemented on June 16 will ensure the following documentation is completed in eStar:
- Opioid prescribing duration category
- Patient TN CSMD record reviewed
- Patient has signed an Opioid Informed Consent
- Patient has signed the Opioid Consent for Women of Childbearing Age (if applicable)
- Evaluation of the patient
- Contraindication to alternative therapy, or, trial and failure of alternative therapy
If you have any specific questions on opioid prescribing, please email them to opioidinfo@vumc.org.