As opioid-related overdose deaths continue to climb, two experts recently mapped four changes to health policy and healthcare practices that could help deter one of the most pressing health crises facing the nation, according to STAT.
In 2015, prescription opioids killed more than 22,000 people, outpacing homicide as the more lethal killer.
Here are four strategies that could facilitate the end of the opioid epidemic, according to Brian Sites, MD, an anesthesiologist at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H., and Matthew Davis, PhD, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan School of Nursing and the Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation in Ann Arbor.
1. Work to identify those at high-risk for opioid misuse and addiction like individuals with mental health disorders such as depression and anxiety.
2. Create health policies and care guidelines designed to eliminate the dependence of physicians on opioids for effective pain treatment. These policies and guidelines should be free of influence from the drug industry.
3. Vet policies determining financial reimbursement for areas of care like patient satisfaction to ensure these policies are not indirectly influencing the overprescribing of opioids.
4. Expand access to drug addiction treatment services and establish policies seeking to eliminate fraudulent prescribing practices.
"Pain rarely kills, though we know of people in chronic pain who feel like it is killing them," wrote the authors. "But pain pills are actually killing astonishing numbers of vulnerable Americans. If we don't resolve this opioid problem, thousands more will needlessly die."
To read the complete STAT article, click here.
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