The Power of Opioid Prevention and Treatment Series: Mastering Opioid Stewardship Deployment

America has seen soaring rates of fatal overdoses from opioid analgesics – that is prescription drugs such as oxycodone, hydrocodone and fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is often produced and sold illegally. Hospitals are trying to limit the amount of opioids leaving their doors while increasing education about opioid use and misuse among health care workers and patients and deploying new treatment models. In this episode – part four of AHA’s five-part series on opioid stewardship, Marie Cleary-Fishman, vice president of clinical quality at the American Hospital Association, is joined once again by Dr. Holly Geyer, hospital internal medicine practitioner subspecialized in addiction medicine at Mayo Clinic. The discussion: encouraging careful and selective use of long-term opioid therapy in the context of managing chronic pain through evidence-based prescribing guidelines, educating staff and patients, and improving the referral to treatment process