 During the last several years, nearly every emergency room across the country has handled opioid overdoses, which costs hospitals billions of dollars a year. Patients often do not have health insurance, leaving hospitals to absorb the cost of care. Now, some hospitals have joined together to file a handful of lawsuits in state courts, seeing the state-based suits as their best hope of winning meaningful settlement money.
A recent study systematically reviewed 251 publications that report on evaluations of interventions to address provider and patient/public behavior and prevent prescription and illicit opioid overdose. The study found that the quality of evidence supporting the examined interventions was low to moderate. Interventions with the strongest evidence included PDMP and pain clinic legislation, insurance strategies, motivational interviewing in clinical settings, feedback to providers on opioid prescribing behavior, intensive school and family-based programs, and patient education in the clinical setting.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a new module, A Nurse's Call to Action for Safer Opioid Prescribing Practices, in its interactive online training series Applying CDC’s Guideline for Prescribing Opioids. This module helps nurses learn how they can support the implementation of the CDC Guideline to address the opioid overdose epidemic. From a nursing perspective, participants will learn risk mitigation strategies, quality improvement practices, patient communication techniques, and care coordination approaches that support safer opioid prescribing.
 The Indiana University Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health has recently launched the new Integrated Pain Management (IPM) ECHO. The primary goal of ECHO is to build capacity to best respond to the diverse needs of patients across Indiana, increase access to care and improve health outcomes while reducing disparities. Practitioners who participate in the IPM ECHO will join a learning community of providers who engage in case-based discussions, build a peer network and gain mentorship from a team of subject matter experts. The IPM ECHO will meet virtually using Zoom videoconferencing from 8 to 9:30 a.m. ET every first and third Friday. Interested parties are invited to join as their schedule permits. Please click here to complete the online registration.
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