LOUISVILLE, Ky., Aug. 12, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Appriss Inc., a leading technology provider for risk assessment and analytics in public safety and healthcare, announced that The Kroger Co. has introduced NARxCHECK™ into over 200 stores in Ohio, West Virginia, and Arizona in an effort to improve patient safety and combat prescription drug abuse.
NARxCHECK™ (http://www.appriss.com/narxcheck.html), is an analytics engine that provides real-time clinical decision support to physicians and pharmacists when making prescribing and dispensing decisions around controlled substances. The program provides three key components for prescribers and dispensers: a patient score, an interactive graph depicting the usage pattern of drugs, and detailed analytics about controlled substance prescriptions filled by the patient. The NARxCHECK™ algorithm assesses a patient's controlled substance history from state prescription monitoring programs, computes a score and highlights potential issues with overuse or abuse of narcotics, sedatives and stimulants.
The NARxCHECK™ system assigns a numerical score that is derived by analyzing the patient's prescription patterns. Lower scores improve doctors' and pharmacists' confidence that the patient may not have any controlled substance usage concerns. More elevated scores cue the doctors and pharmacists to carefully consider the patient's controlled substance usage.
"We are thrilled to be working with Kroger in their Ohio, West Virginia and Arizona pharmacies and look forward to expanding into additional stores," said Krishnan Sastry, Executive Vice President at Appriss, Inc. "We look forward to helping thousands of pharmacists in The Kroger Company to leverage our analytics to effectively and efficiently identify potential over-prescribing issues with opioids and improve patient safety."
"Our Kroger pharmacists can now easily identify patients for whom controlled substance usage is unusually high and address overuse or abuse concerns without the need to log into different websites for historical data," said Mike Menkhaus, a manager on the pharmacy system development team at Kroger. "The NARxCHECK™ scoring system and immediate access to prescription monitoring program data right within the pharmacist workflow put the best tools available in the hands of our pharmacists to ensure the safety of our patients and to comply with state regulations."
About Appriss
Appriss provides data-driven solutions to fulfill our mission of keeping communities safe and informed. Partnering with public safety, healthcare, and leading private and public companies, Appriss delivers solutions that prevent fraud, mitigate risk, fight crime, ensure compliance, increase public safety and save lives. Appriss' solutions are always backed by excellent customer support with technical agents in the US that are available to help 24x7x365.
For more information, visit www.appriss.com (http://www.appriss.com).
About Kroger
Kroger, one of the world's largest retailers, employs nearly 400,000 associates who serve customers in 2,626 supermarkets with over 2100 pharmacies, and multi-department stores in 34 states and the District of Columbia under two dozen local banner names including Kroger, City Market, Dillons, Food 4 Less, Fred Meyer, Fry's, Harris Teeter, Jay C, King Soopers, QFC, Ralphs and Smith's. The company also operates 780 convenience stores, 327 fine jewelry stores, 1,342 supermarket fuel centers and 37 food processing plants in the U.S. Recognized by Forbes as the most generous company in America, Kroger supports hunger relief, breast cancer awareness, the military and their families, and more than 30,000 schools and community organizations. Kroger contributes food and funds equal to 200 million meals a year through more than 100 Feeding America food bank partners. A leader in supplier diversity, Kroger is a proud member of the Billion Dollar Roundtable and the U.S. Hispanic Chamber's Million Dollar Club.