PRACTICE PARTNER
Get an
Opioid
Prescribing
Snapshot
Newest addition to MyPractice
reports aims to provide data
that helps doctors improve
their care
D
r. David Kaplan, a family doctor
in Toronto, recently learned some-
thing that he says shocked him
about his patient roster. Of his 1,100
patients, 70 had started on opioids in the previous
six months. Yet he was the prescriber for only 30% of
those patients. The other 70% received the drug from
someone else.
With this data, Dr. Kaplan now includes a question
about opioid use in the EMR template when doing a
periodic heath review. He hopes this screening ques-
tion will help him to better identify and manage these
patients.
The information on opioid use came when Dr.
Kaplan examined a preview of his own MyPractice
Report – a Primary Care Practice Report (PCPR)
developed by Health Quality Ontario (HQO).
PCPRs provide Ontario doctors with confidential
information about their own practice relative to peers
across the province. The reports have covered dia-
betes management, cancer screening and the use of
other health services like emergency departments. In
November 2017, the PCPRs began including opioid
prescribing patterns.
Dr. David Kaplan
Beyond gaining insight into key measurements,
doctors can access ideas to address possible issues
in their practice. “You can take that information
and make a change to improve [patient] care,” says
Dr. Kaplan, Provincial Clinical Lead, Primary Care for
HQO.
Improvement Tips Add Value
MyPractice reports offer helpful cumulative data, but
don’t identify individual patients. For instance, they’ll
show how your screening rate for colon cancer com-
pares to other family doctors, or what percentage of
your diabetes patients have had a regular eye exam.
The suggestions for change give the reports added
value. With diabetes management, for example, a doc-
tor might use software to create a cohort of diabetic
patients, send a letter reminding them of the impor-
tance of eye exams and offering to provide a list (if
needed) of optometrists in the patient’s community.
In addition to providing information that helps
improve patient care, PCPRs also are a great way for
physicians to meet their continuing professional devel-
opment requirement.
For opioid prescribing, the PCPRs includes four metrics:
ISSUE 4, 2017 DIALOGUE
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