Columbus – Building on its commitment to promote responsible and
appropriate prescribing of opioid pain medication, the Henry County Hospital
is pleased to announce its adoption of the Ohio Emergency and Acute Care
Facility Opioids and Other Controlled Substances (OOCS) Prescribing Guidelines.
Developed by the Governor's Cabinet Opiate Action Team's Professional
Education Workgroup, the guidelines provide uniform guidance for the prescribing
of opioids and other controlled substances where the treatment of pain
does not benefit from an established and ongoing physician-patient relationship.
"Henry County Hospital leadership team and medical staff is doing
its part to change opioid prescribing practices in Ohio in order to address
the staggering epidemic of prescription drug addiction and overdose,"
said Kim Bordenkircher, CEO of Henry County Hospital. "The adoption
of these guidelines will assist clinicians in providing the best possible
care while also tempering patient expectations of the services able to
be provided in an emergency/acute care setting."
In 2007, drug overdose became the leading cause of injury death in Ohio,
surpassing motor vehicle crashes for the first time on record. This trend
continued through 2010 when unintentional drug overdoses rose to their
highest levels by claiming the lives of 1544 Ohioans. Prescription drug
overdoses have largely driven this rise in deaths.
The Emergency Department (ED) is an important source of opioid prescriptions.
Of the 374,891 ED visits in the U.S. during 1993-2005, 42 percent of visits
were related to pain and nearly one-third (29 percent) of patients received
an opioid. Opioid prescribing for pain-related ED visits increased from
23 percent in 1993 to 37 percent in 2005. In Ohio, 16 percent of fatal
overdose victims in 2008 had a history of "doctor shopping"
(filled prescriptions from at least five different prescribers in a year).
In response to the need for a high quality effective pain management solution,
Henry County Hospital will open the Henry County Hospital Pain Management
Center on March 21, 2013. The Pain Management Center provides comprehensive
pain management services to the community, offering treatment for a variety
of conditions including neck and back pain, headaches, fibromyalgia, chronic
pelvic pain, Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD), nerve damage, as well
as pain associated with arthritis, muscle spasms and shingles.
"The Pain Management Center will provide a balanced approach to pain
focused on treating patients through a combination of diagnostics, minimally
invasive outpatient procedures, physical modalities, and therapy, while
decreasing the focus on prescription medication. If prescription drugs
are included in an individualized pain treatment plan, the focus becomes
managing those medications for optimal patient benefit," stated Bordenkircher.
Educating patients about the Guidelines is a critical part of this effort
as well. Patient information will be given to patients and posted in the
waiting area to explain the Guidelines and address expectations about
opioid prescribing in the emergency/acute care setting. The guidelines,
corresponding patient education information and background information
are available here:
http://www.healthyohioprogram.org/ed/guidelines.aspx