EDIE is integrated with the prescription drug-monitoring program (PDMP). In Washington state, EDIE also pushes the PDMP data to you with risk-based triggers. Three screen log-ins? Gone! The information is right there and formatted for easy digestion. EDIE knows no bias; it searches on the 22-year-old tattooed male and the 32-year-old housewife holding her baby just the same. If it finds something relevant, you’re immediately alerted. If not, you go about your business without wasting time searching for something that may not even exist.

Care coordination across delivery systems is critical to improving care. In Oregon and elsewhere, the same EDIE information on Medicaid and other insured patients is also sent to their primary care providers.

This is a system with proven success. Through an alliance with Collective Medical Technologies (CMT), ACEP has seen this system mature in Washington and Oregon, as well as many other states, with more states coming online in 2017. Washington state, in the first year alone, experienced a 24 percent decrease in opioid prescriptions written from emergency departments, a 14 percent reduction of super-utilizer visits, and state Medicaid savings of more than $32 million.

With the emergency department serving as the gateway to health care for many individuals, ACEP’s goal is to continue to promote this system, with active progress in a dozen other states. This tool shows the value of emergency medicine and truly is win-win-win for patients, providers, and health care systems.

Join us in demanding better care for our high utilizers and work with your state hospital association and department of health to add this valuable resource to your cache of tools to make a meaningful, data-driven difference for your patients.

Visit Collective Medical Tech or read “Seven Best Practice Resources” for more information.

Disclosure: ACEP endorses EDIE and has an agreement to exclusively promote the product as well as help develop standards for emergency department information exchange systems nationwide.

Dr. Anderson is an emergency physician in Seattle and a member of the ACEP Board of Directors.