Group Health Implements Initiative to Avert Patient Opioid Misuse ...

Group Health Implements Initiative to Avert Opioid Misuse

August 5, 2011 ? 1:23 pm

Opioid drugs like OxyContin and Vicodin have been increasingly prescribed for chronic pain management not due to cancer in the United States since the 1980s- a twofold increase from 1997 to 2005. This rise has been accompanied by alarming increases in opioid abuse and fatal overdosing, resulting in almost 14,000 U.S.deaths a year. Last April, The Food and Drug Agency and the Drug Enforcement Agency called for an initiative to stem the epidemic of prescription drug abuse.

However, when the federal plan to control prescription drug abuse was announced, Group Health had already implemented a major initiative involving its primary care teams.The intent was to ensure compassionate, evidence-based care for patients with chronic noncancer pain, while not placing undue restrictions on clinically appropriate prescriptions.

As opioid prescribing increased over the years, leaders at Group Health grew increasingly aware of major problems arising in patient care related to opioids. Group Health responded to the opioid problem as a ?learning health care system.? Group Health?s delivery system, research institute, and foundation collaborated to improve the effectiveness, safety, and value of health care. Its response to the epidemic of prescription opioid abuse provides an example of how a learning health care system can serve its enrollees and the broader public, and how each of the organization?s parts contribute to reaching a common goal.

Source: http://ghcnews.org/?p=1598

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