Bamboo Health and Missouri Join Forces to Combat Opioid Epidemic in the State

Smiling female pharmacist scrolling on a tablet in a pharmacy

Louisville, KY & Boston – Feb. 27, 2024 Bamboo Health, the leader in Real-Time Care Intelligence™, announced a partnership with the State of Missouri to deploy a comprehensive statewide prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP). The initiative is aimed at providing healthcare professionals with real-time PDMP data in their existing workflows, saving them valuable time and ensuring confidence when prescribing and dispensing controlled substances.

In 2022, nearly 1,600 Missourians lost their lives due to an opioid overdose, according to the state’s Department of Health and Senior Services. That means that 1 out of every 45 deaths statewide was attributed to an opioid-involved overdose. Launched statewide in December 2023, the PDMP serves as a vital electronic database, enabling healthcare workers to compile and review patients’ medication histories. The program encourages all professionals, including physicians and pharmacists, involved in prescribing and dispensing controlled substances to review PDMP data before administering narcotics, stimulants, opioids or other controlled substances. This process is designed to create safer prescribing and dispensing patterns.

Bamboo Health’s solutions, including PMP AWARxE, PMP Gateway and NarxCare, enable seamless integration of PDMP data and patient risk assessments directly into the existing clinical workflows, electronic health records (EHRs) and pharmacy management systems used by providers and dispensers. Bamboo Health operates state PDMP databases across 44 states and territories.

Dean Linneman, the executive director of Missouri’s Joint Oversight task force for prescription drug monitoring, highlighted the program’s benefits: “The statewide PDMP gives prescribers a tool to verify their patient’s prescription history and allows them to make the best decisions. By utilizing the PDMP information, providers can avoid prescribing potentially unnecessary medications and explore alternative treatments.”

The PDMP program was established by Senate Bill 63 in 2021. Missouri Governor Parson, at the bill signing, remarked, “SB 63 (PDMP) is a crucial step in equipping healthcare professionals with essential information, enabling them to offer better care to patients and effectively combat the opioid crisis in Missouri.”

Bamboo Health previously operated the St. Louis County PDMP, in which several Missouri jurisdictions participated. The state’s decision now to expand its relationship with Bamboo Health through the statewide PDMP ensures a smooth transition in care delivery for both providers and patients. Following the statewide PDMP’s implementation, the St. Louis County PDMP has ceased operations.

To learn more about Bamboo Health’s controlled substance solutions, please visit bamboohealth.com/category-rx-monitoring/.

About Bamboo Health

Bamboo Health, the leader in Real-Time Care Intelligence™, delivers actionable insights on a patient’s physical, behavioral and social health – empowering healthcare professionals to provide the right care at the right time for the right outcomes. Delivered through our Smart Signals™ network – the largest and most interoperable care collaboration community in the nation – our insights improve more than 1 billion patient encounters a year across more than 2,500 hospitals, 8,000 post-acute facilities, 25,000 pharmacies, 32 health plans, 50 state governments and 1 million acute and ambulatory providers. Connect with Bamboo Health on TwitterLinkedIn and Facebook. Visit BambooHealth.com to learn more.

NarxCare is an application that provides a set of tools to support clinicians’ analysis of controlled substance data from government managed and regulated Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (PDMPs). NarxCare is intended to aid, not replace, medical decision making. None of the information presented in the NarxCare application should be used as sole justification for providing or not providing medications.