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DUBLIN, Ohio — As part of its long-standing commitment to reduce opioid misuse and abuse, the Cardinal Health Foundation is pleased to announce a $530,000 grant to the Ohio Hospital Association (OHA) to identify and deploy best opioid prescribing practices for pain management among OHA member hospitals across the state.
This OHA initiative will engage hospitals in a first-of-its-kind statewide collaborative to gather and share benchmark data around opioid prescribing practices, based on physician specialty, patient diagnosis and other variables with the goal of producing more effective pain management and better patient outcomes, with fewer opioids prescribed.
“Cardinal Health and OHA care deeply about the devastation prescription drug misuse has caused and are committed to working toward a solution to the opioid epidemic,” said Jessie Cannon, vice president of community relations at Cardinal Health. “Under the umbrella of Generation Rx and our Opioid Action Program, we are pleased to support OHA in its work to refine opioid prescribing in communities across the state.”
“Ensuring prescribers can compare their prescribing habits with their peers is considered an important step in improving best practices,” said Amy Andres, senior vice president of Quality and Data at OHA. “When we have established benchmark data, we’ll work with hospitals to target opioid prescribing levels to better support patients with chronic pain.”
In 2016, the Centers for Disease Control published its guidelines for opioid prescribing to improve the safety and efficacy of pain care and reduce risks of long-term opioid use. The guidelines recommend that clinicians use caution when prescribing opioids at any dosage, prescribe the lowest effective dosage, and monitor patients on opioids closely for individual benefits and risks.
Patients prescribed opioids in Ohio has decreased from 2.3 million in 2016 to 1.9 million in 2017 according to the latest report from the Ohio Automated RX Reporting System.
OHA president and CEO Mike Abrams said, “From the inception of this project, OHA and Cardinal Health agreed that our focus would be on programs and services designed to significantly impact the opioid epidemic in Ohio. I am confident that this partnership will strengthen the ability of our member hospitals, as well as physicians across Ohio, to combat opioid misuse and abuse.”
To date, 62 Ohio hospitals have committed to participating in the OHA initiative to reduce opioids prescribed.
