Geisinger Health System is another example that paralleled the insights offered by Anne Arundel. Their system also began with the publicly stated goal of a 50 percent reduction in prescribing. They, similarly, achieved a reduction of over 65 percent as of the time of this publication.
Their journey had many similarities to the previous case study, but they added that there were some key factors they measured that weren’t included in Anne Arundel’s dashboard.
Some of those key metrics included:
- Patient education specific to pain control
- Alternatives to opioids such as NSAIDS, APAP, PT, yoga, etc.
- Patients prescribed both an opioid and a benzodiazepine
- Patients with a toxicity screen in the last year
“Although the dashboard may be unique to Geisinger, we believe other health systems and hospitals can generate similar reports on opioid prescribing through their electronic health records or clinical order entry systems. The initiatives rolled out by Geisinger are broadly applicable to healthcare systems across the United States, and we encourage others to apply these strategies in their organizations.”
John Kravitz, Corporate CIO, Geisinger, in testimony to the Health Subcommittee of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee, April 12, 2018
Other Notable Examples
All of the organizations interviewed had very similar processes that led to their organizational opioid dashboards. In addition to that process, though, here are some additional metrics in the menu that your Opioid Committee may want to consider:
- Jefferson Health
- Number of prescriptions with high quantities of MME
- Number of prescriptions with long durations
- Number of patients with more than two opioid prescriptions in 30 days
- Metro Health
- Deaths avoided with naloxone
- Johns Hopkins
- Patients who are co-prescribed naloxone