Opioid Task Force Starts Repository for Educational Materials

 


5.08.18
Candace Stuart, Director, Communications & Public Relations

 

The CHIME Opioid Task Force reached a milestone in April with the presentation of a webinar that was free and open to the public. The webinar officially launched the task force’s educational initiative, which is a pillar of its mission.

On April 25, three healthcare leaders from Geisinger shared their health system’s strategy for reducing opioid prescription rates across the system: John Kravitz, CIO and a member of the CHIME Board of Trustees; Richard Taylor, M.D., Geisinger’s chief medical information officer, and Michael Evans, vice president of enterprise pharmacy and chief pharmacy officer.

In 2016, Pennsylvania had the fourth highest opioid-related death rate in the U.S., and many of the counties with the highest death rates were served by Geisinger. Geisinger developed and initiated several approaches that focused on changing physician practice patterns to reduce the prescribing of opioids. That included creating a provider dashboard linked to their EHR to identify current practice patterns among Geisinger providers. With their baseline data, they found that providers varied greatly in their opioid prescribing patterns, with a relatively small number being heavy prescribers. They then used that information to first target the outliers and provide them with non-addictive options and best practices for pain management.

The results: Geisinger reduced prescriptions for opioids by about half after launching these initiatives, from a monthly average of 60,000 opioid prescriptions to 31,000. They also reported e-prescribing for controlled substances created $1 million in savings within five months due to greater efficiencies. Geisinger plans to integrate its multifaceted approach for reducing opioid prescriptions across the enterprise.

The CHIME Opioid Task Force was launched in January to harness the knowledge and resources of CHIME and its diverse membership. The task force encourages broad and active participation of members to identify and promote best practices and build an evidence base to inform public policy.

The archive of this presentation, the task force’s first educational offering, is now housed on the new CHIME KnowledgeHub. The CHIME Opioid Task Force is building a repository of educational white papers and case studies that reflect emerging and best practices for identifying those with or at risk of opioid addiction, and evidence-based strategies for reducing opioid addiction and death rates.

Foundation firms involved in opioid-related projects are welcome to submit their findings. More information about the KnowledgeHub submission and selection process is available here.

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