Boston Medical Center’s Grayken Center for Addiction and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement have released a document outlining best practices that hospitals can use to address opioid use disorder (OUD).
Entitled
Effective Strategies for Hospitals Responding to the Opioid Crisis, the document provides strategies and case examples from hospitals based on the following five areas:
• identify and treat individuals with OUD at key clinical touchpoints;
• modify opioid prescribing practices to minimize harm and maximize benefit;
• train stakeholders on the risks of OUD and how to reduce stigma;
• identify and screen individuals at high risk of developing OUD; and
• reduce the harms of substance use disorder
The strategies do not provide clinical guidance, but improvements that hospitals can implement immediately. Among the many state, federal, health system, and organizational documents included in the comprehensive guidance document are some that MHA helped create with its membership and partners, including Massachusetts Emergency Department Opioid Management Policy: Patient Information Sheet and Guidelines for Prescription Opioid Management within Hospitals. Those documents and other MHA substance use disorder prevention and treatment guidance are available on
PatientCareLink here.