Page 15 - Christiana Care Focus October 2018

Emily Penman, M.D. Li
Roger Kerzner, M.D., FACC
| Acute Medicine
“We’ve embarked on a multifaceted strategy to educate providers about responsible prescribing practices, promote non-opioid alternatives to control pain and spread evidence-based guidelines around opioid prescription.”
Linda Lang, M.D.
nda Lang, M.D.
There is plenty of progress to make. In 2012, Delaware was the nation’s No. 1 prescriber of high-dose opioid pain relievers and 17th in opioid prescriptions overall. By 2016, Delaware saw a death on average once a day from an opioid overdose.
“We’ve embarked on a multifaceted strategy to educate providers about responsible prescribing practices, promote non-opioid alternatives to control pain and spread evidence-based guidelines around opioid prescription,” said Linda Lang, M.D., chair of Christiana Care’s Safe Opioid Stewardship Steering Committee and
TchairoftheDepartmentofPsychiatry.
he overall goals of Christiana Care’s efforts are to reduce chronic opioid use, combat addiction and ultimately reduce overdose deaths. Because primary care offices are the single largest source of opioid prescriptions, it is there
that much of the progress can be made.
IN 2016
ONE PERSON A DAY DIED from an opioid overdose on average in Delaware.
Opioids at the doctor’s office
Whether their pain is sudden or chronic, most patients first go to their primary care doctor for help.
Christiana Care is putting non-opioid alternatives front-and-center in patients’ electronic medical record, educating providers about alternatives to pain and identifying patients on long-term opioid at the highest risk, said Roger Kerzner, M.D., FACC, clinical director for specialty services at the Medical Group of Christiana Care.
Data analysis is one tool to identify patients who are at higher risk of accidental death from chronic opioid use due to their other medications, health conditions and
other factors, said Ed Ewen, M.D., director of clinical data and analytics and a primary care Many patients are first exposed to opioids after a surgical procedure, and too many of them eventually becomedependentonthem. CONTINUED
IN THE EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT A
50% REDUCTION in opioids prescribed to patients.
FOCUS • OCTOBER 2018 13