Evaluation of Florida Physicians’ Knowledge and Attitudes Toward Accessing the State Prescription Drug Monitoring Program as a Prescribing Tool

Authors

Jennifer A. Gershman, Nova Southeastern UniversityFollow
Jason Gershman, Nova Southeastern UniversityFollow
Andrea D. Fass, Nova Southeastern University
Ioana Popovici, Nova Southeastern UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

12-2014

Publication Title

Pain Medicine

Keywords

Controlled Substances, Electronic-Florida Online Reporting Controlled Substance Evaluation, Physicians, Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs

ISSN

1526-2375

Volume

15

Issue/No.

12

First Page

2013

Last Page

2019

Abstract

Objective The purpose of this study is to assess Florida physicians' attitudes and knowledge toward accessing the state's prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP).

Design Five thousand medical doctors and osteopathic physicians licensed in Florida were randomly selected for a voluntary and anonymous 15-question self-administered survey approved by the Institutional Review Board. Surveys were distributed through U.S. postal service mail. Likert-scale questions were used to assess prior knowledge (1 = none to 5 = excellent) and attitudes toward accessing the PDMP (1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree).

Results The study yielded a response rate of 7.8%, 71.5% of whom agreed or strongly agreed that the PDMP is a useful tool. Among participants that have access and answered the PDMP usefulness question, 94.8% agree or strongly agree that it is a useful tool. There were 63 out of 64 physicians (98.4%) who conducted 25 or more searches who agreed or strongly agreed that the PDMP is a useful tool for monitoring patients' controlled substance histories. There were 72.5% of participants with access that answered the “doctor shopping” question who agreed that “doctor shopping” will decrease. Among the 64 most frequent PDMP users, 69.4% agreed or strongly agreed that they have prescribed fewer controlled substances after accessing the PDMP.

Conclusions The study revealed that a majority of participants believe that the PDMP is a useful tool for monitoring patients' controlled substance histories. More continuing education programs should be provided to Florida physicians to enhance their knowledge regarding PDMPs.

NSUWorks Citation

Gershman, Jennifer A.; Gershman, Jason; Fass, Andrea D.; and Popovici, Ioana, "Evaluation of Florida Physicians’ Knowledge and Attitudes Toward Accessing the State Prescription Drug Monitoring Program as a Prescribing Tool" (2014). Mathematics Faculty Articles. 134.
https://nsuworks.nova.edu/math_facarticles/134

DOI

10.1111/pme.12476