Identifying Prescription-Opioid-Related Risks Using Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs’ Algorithms and Clinical Screening Tools

Background: Pharmacists adopt various approaches to identifying prescription-opioid-related risks and harms, including prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) and clinical screening tools. This study aims to compare ‘at-risk’ patients according to the published Australian PDMP algorithms with the validated Routine Opioid Outcome Monitoring (ROOM) clinical screening tool. Methods: Data were used from an implementation study amongst people who had been prescribed regular opioids. We examined the results from ROOM and the patients’ dispensing history over the previous 90 days. A chi-squared test was used to examine the association between risk according to (i) a PDMP alert and a clinical risk per ROOM; (ii) a PDMP alert and positive screening for opioid use disorder; and (iii) a PDMP ‘high-dose’ alert (average of >100 mg OME/day in the past 90 days) and any ROOM-validated risk. Results: No significant associations were found between being ‘at-risk’ according to any of the PDMP alerts and clinical risk as identified via the ROOM tool (x(2) = 0.094, p = 0.759). There was only minimal overlap between those identified as ‘at-risk’ via PDMP alerts and those meeting the clinical risk indicators; most patients who were ‘at-risk’ of clinical opioid-related risk factors were not identified as ‘at-risk’ based on PDMP alerts. Conclusions: PDMP alerts were not predictive of clinical risk (as per the ROOM tool), as many people with well-established clinical risks would not receive a PDMP alert. Pharmacists should be aware that PDMPs are limited to identifying medication-related risks which are derived using algorithms; therefore, augmenting PDMP information with clinical screening tools can help create a more detailed narrative of patients’ opioid-related risks.