Clinical decision making involving prescription drug monitoring programs: A factorial, vignette-based study among student pharmacists

Abstract

ObjectivesPrescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) are state-maintained databases that providers may reference when deciding to prescribe or dispense controlled substances. As more states begin to mandate PDMP use at the point of care, it is imperative to assess how pharmacists use PDMP information when determining whether to fill a controlled substance prescription (CSP). The objective of this study was to evaluate which factors affected fourth-year student pharmacists’ decision to fill an opioid prescription, their level of confidence in their decision making, and familiarity with the PDMP. MethodsWe used a 24 factorial design to present a series of text-based vignettes to fourth-year student pharmacists. Each participant received 8 vignettes (5 randomly selected, 3 fixed), representing a hypothetical hydrocodone-acetaminophen combination prescription with varying levels of the following dichotomous factors: doctor shopping, dosage, pharmacy shopping, and concurrent benzodiazepine prescription. Participants were asked to decide whether or not they would fill each of the hypothetical prescriptions they received. A multilevel model was used to measure the association between each of the vignette factors, age, race, sex, experience with PDMP, and the decision to refuse to fill a prescription. Each vignette response served as an independent observation. ResultsA total of 87 participants yielded 696 vignette responses. Participants were significantly more likely to refuse to fill prescriptions with doctor shopping (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 19.86 [95% CI 10.78–36.58]), pharmacy shopping (6.78 [4.13–11.12]), dosage (1.83 [1.16–2.90]), or if the student pharmacist was of female sex (1.73 [1.02–2.93]). Concomitant benzodiazepine use was not associated with a no-fill decision (1.45 [0.92–2.27]). ConclusionThis study reveals that student pharmacists’ decision to fill a prescription is dependent on both prescription characteristics and a patient’s CSP history. The importance of PDMP history cannot be downplayed and suggests that PDMP use may be effective in informing patient care decisions. Still, the variability in filling decision highlights the need to teach a formulaic approach to CSP dispensing in colleges of pharmacy.