The link below, describes the steps to integrate the Electronic Florida Online Reporting of Controlled Substance Evaluation Program (E-FORCSE) into an EMR System. Granted, this a Florida only deal and there is a third party involved however, we are willing to contribute to this cause because we are spending hundreds of dollars each month downloading, printing and subsequently shredding dozens of these reports, when we could be linked up and pulling this information directly into patient records.
Any hope of getting this evaluated for possible inclusion into OpenEMR?
Also would love to hear from anyone else interested in contributing to this cause.
So I dug into the Georgia details which uses Bamboo Health (which I guess was formally known as Apriss which is what Florida mentions in the link @hitechelp posted about) and apparently there is state funding allocated to pay for the EHR integration.
The bamboo website mentions that most states are funding these integrations. I’m not sure @brad if you already looked into things, but rolling out a bamboo health module integration should be doable, looks like that organization works in the vast majority of 50 states for PDMP integration. I’m interested in helping things out from the Georgia angle since its one of my favorite states
The PDMP will be included with the Rcopia integration from DrFirst.
We should be starting the build next week. DrFirst covers all 50 states and is a partner with SureScripts. So, there will be no need to do a state by state integration. IMO.
This is great news. We applied today. And we’re willing to pitch in even if the state doesn’t. Although we’re also writing letters to our state and federal representatives to encourage them. If there is anything FPA can do to help out we will give it our best effort.
I just heard back from Bamboo regarding the application I submitted. (The application process involves choosing your EMR system from a drop down list which doesn’t include OpenEMR). This was their response;
If Open EMR is not on the list, it does not have an integration with Bamboo. However, they may be using a Plug-in to assist—e.g. Dosespot, RXNT etc… Please confirm with your EMR if they are using a plug in for the service. Thanks.
Sherwin;
Sounds like Rcopia will be part of OEMR in the near future and that I don’t need to apply to start the integration process, true? I ask because I’m building new servers and looking into using Docker but not if that will cause problems or long delays in the new server roll out.
Soon is a relative term.
The contract has been signed and sent to SureScripts. It is a 2 week wait for SureScripts to approve the application. If they do, then we move forward with the build process. It can take up to 3 more weeks to get the module functional. This is our current time line.
Bamboo health was recently spamming providers for information on which EMRs they should integrate with. Below is the email:
Dear Healthcare Provider,
On November 3rd the Georgia Department of Public Health Prescription Drug MonitoringProgram (PDMP) Integration Team launched a survey designed to assess the visibility of and access to the Statewide Integration Program. If you already completed the survey, we thank you for your time and participation. However, if you have not had the opportunity to complete the short survey, we will keep it open until Sunday, December 18th and would sincerely appreciate your input. Gateway integration of PDMP access into your electronic health records (EHR) clinical workflow removes the burden of logging into a separate portal to satisfy the requirement of querying your patients’ controlled substance filling history, when appropriate. With this effort we hope to discover and address any barriers that may prevent statewide adoption of the Gateway integration.
The survey will take less than 10 minutes to complete. Please take your time answering these questions and do not hesitate to contact us (see below) should you have any concerns or require assistance. Please also note that your responses are anonymous and confidential.
I’m interested in knowing if Rcopia uses Bamboo to handle the PDMP. I live in GA so I’m interested in implementing this integration if for some reason things fall through w/ Rcopia. We’d need to make sure the financials would work out, but supposedly the state will pay for the work. Hopefully we’ll hear an update from @juggernautsei as things get closer to completion.
@adunsulag, I will ask that question. Right now, the project needs SureScripts approval to move forward. I will post here as soon as I get a reply about Bamboo.
Just got this email today from GA PDMP Support (let me know if anyone has specific recommendations or request and I’ll fill out the survey on Friday):
Dear Healthcare Provider,
On January 17th, the Georgia Department of Public Health Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) launched a survey designed to assess the visibility of and access to the Statewide Integration Program. If you already completed the survey, we thank you for your time and participation. Please do not complete the survey again if you have already. However, if you have not had the opportunity to complete the short survey, we will keep it open until Friday, February 16th, and would sincerely appreciate your input.
Gateway integration of PDMP access into your electronic health records (EHR) clinical workflow removes the burden of logging into a separate portal to satisfy the requirement of querying your patients’ controlled substance filling history, when appropriate. With this effort we hope to discover and address any barriers that may prevent statewide adoption of the Gateway integration.
The survey will take 5-10 minutes to complete. Please take your time answering these questions and do not hesitate to contact us (see below) should you have any concerns or require assistance. Please also note that your responses are anonymous and confidential.
Thank you, in advance, for your time and consideration. Your contribution in filling out the survey will help guide the future of the PDMP in Georgia and let us know areas of improvement. We appreciate the responses of those who have already answered the survey.
If this is ever going to get done one or more folks are going to need to step up and sponsor the work.
I suspect though that many of the e-prescribe vendors will have this integration and offer it as part of their product. I believe Weno plans on doing this.
Thanks Jerry,
We’re willing to sponsor this if we can afford it or co-sponsor if it’s more that we can handle.
How much would you estimate as a ballpark cost? And, we’re looking for lower cost e-rx options than Veridigm. If there’s one that integrates e-forcse we’ll certainly consider it as well.
Are you already using Veradigm? They have PDMP support built into their e-prescribe product offering (at least they’ve told me they do). If you are looking to get off of them then Weno is an alternative as I believe they have it roadmapped to be built this year.
I’ve been interested in building this out if there’s enough interest to do the PDMP. I’ve been attempting to contact GA providers as GA will pay to actually build out the integration but I haven’t heard back from any of the provider’s I’ve contacted. If you’re directly sponsoring it we’d need to contact Bamboo (the vendor that Florida and most other states use) to get their integration specifications before we could come up with a price list.
I was letting other’s take the lead on this since it looked like the e-prescibe solutions were going to bundle this together.
We use the web version of Veradigm e-Rx, and as I understand it (correct me if I am mistaken) one must be using the Veradigm EHR to access the PDMP database for your state.
Which leads me back to other vendors, for example Bamboo, who is listed on Florida’s E-FORCSE site as a vendor yet has shown little to no interest in working with individual providers when I contacted them directly in September of last year.
You however, as a developer may interest them enough to work with you. In any case we are willing to sponsor work to make this part of OEMR if that’s even possible, but we don’t have deep pockets. meaning we’ll only be able to commit two thousand dollars over the course of Q2 FY 24. If that’s insufficient, perhaps our initial outlay would encourage others to chip in and co-sponsor.
