{"id":10710,"date":"2017-06-12T08:15:21","date_gmt":"2017-06-12T14:15:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/?p=10710"},"modified":"2025-01-17T13:21:29","modified_gmt":"2025-01-17T20:21:29","slug":"pushing-alternatives-not-opioids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/pushing-alternatives-not-opioids\/","title":{"rendered":"Pushing alternatives, not opioids"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

\"A<\/p>\n

UCHealth\u2019s northern Colorado emergency departments are among those leading an effort to\u00a0reformulate pain management protocols to address the\u00a0nation’s\u00a0opioid addiction epidemic.<\/p>\n

On June 5, eight hospitals and three freestanding emergency departments in Colorado launched an opioid pilot program created by the Colorado Hospital Association. UCHealth’s\u00a0Medical Center of the Rockies in Loveland<\/a>; Poudre Valley Hospital<\/a> and UCHealth Emergency Room on Harmony Road<\/a>, both in Fort Collins; Greeley Emergency and Surgery Center<\/a>;\u00a0and soon-to-be UCHealth partner, Yampa Valley Medical Center in Steamboat Springs<\/a>, are participating in the pilot.<\/p>\n

The initiative is one of the largest opioid research efforts in the United States, according to the CHA. The program involves implementation of\u00a0new opioid prescribing and treatment guidelines set by the Colorado Chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians. The goal:\u00a0reduce the administration of opioids by ER clinicians\u00a0to address the overall misuse of pain medications.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is something that the government has said they\u2019ll start requiring of everyone in about two years,\u201d said Dr. Jamie Teumer<\/a>, an emergency physician at UCHealth\u00a0and medical director of MCR\u2019s emergency department in Loveland. \u201cWe wanted to get that head start as we believe we owe it to our population to be doing this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Misuse and abuse<\/h3>\n

Statistics about opioid misuse\u00a0reveal a\u00a0harsh reality. Colorado has the 12th<\/sup> highest rate of misuse and abuse of prescription opioids across all 50 states, according to CHA. In 2015, PVH\u2019s emergency room\u00a0reported 17 heroin and opioid overdoses and, in 2016, that number almost doubled, to 31. Two-thirds of\u00a0overdoses are from opioids, while the other third is from heroin, often\u00a0an alternative for an addict who can\u2019t get opioids, Teumer said. Four\u00a0of every 10 adults will admit to the misuse of some sort of medication, mainly painkillers, he added.<\/p>\n

Before the pilot, UCHealth had already identified that too many people were coming to their ERs with the purpose of getting opioids and\u00a0efforts\u00a0were underway to change protocols and guidelines,\u00a0including duration of prescriptions and for which ailments.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were already working on about 60 percent of what\u2019s in the guidelines, so when they (CHA) called it was easy to say, \u2018yes,\u2019 and transition into this pilot,\u201d Teumer said. \u201cWe can only control so much, but we are in a position to reduce the risk for a population who is at a high risk for (opioid) abuse.\u201d<\/p>\n

While not part of the pilot, UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital <\/a>in Aurora,\u00a0and UCHealth Memorial Hospital in Colorado Springs have\u00a0 initiated new pain management protocols in the emergency departments,\u00a0Teumer said.<\/p>\n

At Memorial,\u00a0physicians\u00a0have been\u00a0working\u00a0toward\u00a0reducing opioid prescriptions for the past two years by making changes in how opioids are prescribed in the emergency departments at both Memorial Hospital Central and Memorial Hospital North.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe think this is a community problem and the ER is a part of fixing and helping our community,\u201d said Dr. George Hertner, chief of emergency medicine for UCHealth Memorial Hospital.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to make a conscious effort to apply up-to-date and reasonable pain control approaches, including the appropriate use of narcotic therapy vs. alternative therapies.\u00a0 We have seen dramatic changes in our prescribing habits.\u00a0\u00a0 By comparison, in 2016 vs. the previous year, we\u2019ve had a 248 percent reduction in narcotic prescriptions out of the emergency departments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because of those changes,\u00a0Memorial has reduced the number of opioids that have been prescribed\u00a0by the equivalent of a metric ton — 2,200 pounds, Hertner said. UCHealth Memorial is working on a research paper about its work.<\/p>\n

Alternatives to opioids<\/h3>\n

Under the pilot,\u00a0treatment guidelines\u00a0recommend the use of alternatives to opioids (ALTOs) as a first-line treatment for pain rather than opioids. For example, Lidocaine, which is non-habit forming, has traditionally been used as a numbing agent. But research supports that it also works well for kidney stones, a condition resulting in pain so severe that it was thought only opioids could tackle it.<\/p>\n

Haldol\u00a0is another example. Historically used for sedation, medical professionals are now finding it can help with certain types of pain conditions that involve excessive vomiting. It\u00a0can also be used for severe headaches, Teumer said. Nitrous oxide also is an alternative. Although its medical use has been around for years, it only recently became part of UCHealth\u2019s pain management portfolio in birthing units, and also will be used in ERs starting in September.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are legitimate reasons to have pain medications, and we don\u2019t deny that fact and those people pain medications,\u201d Teumer said. \u201cBut if we have an opportunity to provide an alternative, then we will.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pilot program is necessary to gather data, establish information about best practices and to determine the efficiency of using ALTOs for managing\u00a0acute pain, according to the CHA. CHA and its partners, the Colorado Chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians, the Colorado Consortium for Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention, Telligen and the Colorado Emergency Nurses Association, formed the Colorado Opioid Safety Collaborative and will oversee this program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UCHealth\u2019s northern Colorado emergency departments are among those leading an effort to\u00a0reformulate pain management protocols to address the\u00a0nation’s\u00a0opioid addiction epidemic. On June 5, eight hospitals and three freestanding emergency departments in Colorado launched an opioid pilot program created by the Colorado Hospital Association. UCHealth’s\u00a0Medical Center of the Rockies in Loveland; Poudre Valley Hospital and UCHealth […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2164,"featured_media":20281,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[17,235,1163,65,351,209],"class_list":["post-10710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-innovative-care","tag-addiction-treatment","tag-emergency-care","tag-opioids","tag-pain-care-and-management","tag-primary-care","tag-urgent-care"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPushing alternatives, not opioids - UCHealth Today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"UCHealth\u2019s northern Colorado emergency departments are among those leading an effort to\u00a0reformulate pain management protocols to address the\u00a0nation’s\u00a0opioid addiction epidemic. 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