Joint Venture Helps Healthcare Providers Identify and Prevent Controlled Substance Misuse

Thursday, March 14, 2019

Mountain Health Network has entered into a joint venture with Marshall Health and HealthtrackRx® to offer clinical and laboratory services to help healthcare providers identify and prevent opioid and controlled substance misuse. The joint venture will create a new organization focused on tackling the ongoing opioid epidemic in West Virginia and the surrounding regions.

The new laboratory will be located at 2561 3rd Avenue in Huntington. It will provide drug testing services for physicians and hospitals and support HealthTrackRx's GuideMed® clinical solution. GuideMed enables physicians and hospitals to provide new resources for safe prescribing and monitoring medication use in people being treated with opioids and other controlled substances. The program has been used by more than 30,000 people and initial results have shown improved patient compliance and medication use. Mountain Health is committed to providing services that both support safe medication prescribing and help identify patients at risk of substance misuse for referral to further treatment.

“We are eager to bring these services to our region and believe they will be vital in providing support to those recovering from substance use disorder,” stated, Michael Mullins, President and CEO, Mountain Health Network. The GuideMed program will provide a framework to assist in return-to-work programs and assure employers in hiring recovery patients. It also will assist physicians with safely prescribing and monitoring medications for those requiring treatment for pain management.”

The GuideMed program and its patent pending technology can help providers meet new legislative requirements for prescribing opioids. It provides customized patient reports to physicians, compiles data on risk and compliance, allows for centralization of patient education, and testing. The service will allow physicians to delegate the monitoring activities and reporting requirements to the joint venture, to help relieve the burden on them and their staff.

“Research and preliminary data from our program show that comprehensive monitoring yields greater success for our patients to achieve long-term recovery—that's the most important part,” said Beth L. Hammers, chief executive officer of Marshall Health. “This new service is a means to that end, taking the burden of continuous monitoring off the physicians and their staff while still allowing them to chart progress and make adjustments throughout the process.”

“GuideMed originated from the goal of supporting physicians in monitoring their patients and properly prescribing pain medications. Our objective is to provide a turnkey program that helps ensure safe prescribing, while also supporting improved pain treatment outcomes,” said Dr. Doug Brenner, President and CEO of HealthTrackRx.