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Owensboro Health, KASPER Partner to Deliver Prescription Data Faster to Physicians

Owensboro Health

Kentucky’s prescription drug monitoring program, known as KASPER, is partnering with Owensboro Health to speed up the time it takes physicians to get a patient’s prescription history. 

When doctors prescribe controlled substances, state law requires them to run a KASPER report to ensure patients aren’t visiting multiple doctors to get illicitly obtain prescription pain killers.  The process takes a minimum of 16 steps to pull one KASPER report through the state’s portal, according to Jean Hall, KASPER Integration Project Manager with the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services. 

Under a pilot program, the Owensboro Health system is integrating it’s electronic record system with KASPER data.  Dr. David Danhauer is the Chief Medical Information Officer at Owensboro Health.  He told WKU Public Radio that each day at midnight, the health system runs a query of all patients who have an appointment that day and puts the KASPER report automatically in the patient’s record. 

"You can imagine the time savings associated with that," Danhauer said to WKU Public Radio. "It's almost instantaneous versus the 10 or 15 minutes for the physician to log in and get that information."

Owensboro Health serves 12 western Kentucky counties.  It launched the pilot project on November 1st.  Hall says in the initial three weeks, KASPER has responded to 1,828 requests.  At five minutes per report, that amounts to a savings of 152 hours.

Secretary Adam Meier with the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services says timelier access to KASPER data is key to addressing the opioid crisis. Meier says the goal is to eventually integrate KASPER information with other health care systems in the state.

© 2018 WKU Public Radio

Lisa is a Scottsville native and WKU alum. She has worked in radio as a news reporter and anchor for 18 years. Prior to joining WKU Public Radio, she most recently worked at WHAS in Louisville and WLAC in Nashville. She has received numerous awards from the Associated Press, including Best Reporter in Kentucky. Many of her stories have been heard on NPR.
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