When the follow up question “how do you know?” is asked, the response is usually much more subjective or non-descript. Which unfortunately means that if your facility dispenses controlled or non-controlled medications, there’s likely already a diversion problem. The real question is not whether the problem exists, but rather how large is the diversion problem and how and when will it be identified?
Unfortunately, for many organizations, the identification of a drug diversion problem often comes about in an accidental and very public manner. Simply Google “(name the healthcare discipline) steals medication” or any similar query and you will see several results for hospitals and health systems across the country – some in the very recent past. Diverters come from many types of jobs and situations. In some cases, diverters were nurses, others were pharmacy techs, pharmacists, physicians and other healthcare workers. Some worked at one hospital before they were caught, some worked at numerous hospitals and other healthcare facilities before their diversion was detected. One diverter worked at a retail pharmacy. This person diverted prescription pain pills including morphine, hydrocodone, oxycodone as well as high-value non-controlled medications. While diversion has many faces, diverters often have one very important thing in common — they’ve been diverting for months and years before their actions are detected.
Analytics – An Important Piece of Solving the Puzzle
Management guru Peter Drucker is often quoted as saying, “You can’t manage what you don’t measure.” Nothing could be truer when it comes to drug diversion. As Visante VP Greg Burger noted in his recent Insider article Drug Diversion: What Isn’t Behind the Numbers, “Using some sort of software analytic tool has become standard practice in proactive diversion monitoring for hospitals and health systems. Reports are generated for anomalous use or standard deviations based upon transactions as a starting point for identifying potential diversion activity.”
Many pharmacies already utilize software programs to pull data from Automated Dispensing Cabinet (ADC) systems and measure standard deviations. Relying on transactional detail, while better than manual observation or nothing, does not provide the level of surveillance, analytics, and trending that you need to identify diverters in a much more timely manner. In fact, you most likely will miss more diverters than you catch. Diverters are smart. They know the system weaknesses and how to exploit them to their advantage. Having the ability to drill down into this data to gain knowledge into otherwise unnoticeable behavior for all staff eliminates random audits and allows for the identification of diversion early, while simultaneously reducing the organization’s workload.
A New Solution
Visante recently identified The Rx Drug Diversion Analytics™ software by HelioMetrics as a next generation, next level solution to address the problems in current state drug diversion detection and prevention tools. (www.heliometrics.net) This product assists the pharmacy manager and leader to proactively identify system weaknesses by connecting automated cabinet detail with external data sources. Early identification allows organizations to address policies and procedures while enhancing operational efficiency and patient safety. Through the combined use of multiple data sources to provide context to the ADC activity, monitoring and detection are automated, reducing investigation time. The software makes everything easy to understand through the use of visualizations encompassing scorecards and dashboards that allow for customization to the organization’s workflow(s). These analytics directly translate that knowledge into improved decision making, process and policy changes and cost savings.
Don’t Be The Next Headline
Now more than ever, health care organizations should focus on doing all they can to prevent the unauthorized procurement, redistribution, sale and misuse of controlled and non-controlled prescription medications to protect and safeguard their patients and communities. No organization is immune. Drug diversion can happen at all levels in any organization. Robust drug diversion analytics software should be part of a comprehensive drug diversion program at your hospital or healthcare system. Without these type of comprehensive, systematic surveillance tools, the question is not whether, but rather when and how your drug diversion issue will be identified.