SHM Partners with 10 U.S. Hospitals to Reduce Adverse Events Associated with Opioid Prescribing

Mentored Implementation Framework Helps Hospitals, Clinicians Increase Patient Safety through Implementation of Evidence-Based Best Practices

The Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM)’s Center for Hospital Innovation and Improvement recently launched the second iteration of its Reducing Adverse Drug Events Related to Opioids program, or RADEO 2, supported by funding from Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals. This eighteen-month mentored implementation program assists hospitals and hospital clinicians with implementing new processes to make opioid prescribing safer and less likely to result in patient harm.

“RADEO 2 is just one example of how SHM is developing tools to provide hospitalists with the necessary resources to lead the charge in QI,” says Eric Howell, MD, MHM, Chief, Division of Hospital Medicine at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore, MD and SHM Physician Advisor. “Mentored Implementation programs provide a valuable opportunity for hospitalists to learn from leaders in the field while advancing patient safety in their institutions.”

Evidence suggests that patient care and safety for hospitalized patients can be vastly improved with judicious prescribing, high-risk screenings and monitoring, but many hospitals have either incomplete or outdated policies or procedures related to safe opioid prescribing and administration. On December 5, 2016, SHM began working with ten hospital sites and their assigned physician mentors to design and implement key interventions to enhance safety for patients in the hospital who are prescribed opioid medications.

“As a mentee of SHM’s Opioid Mentored Implementation Program, I have really benefited from direct feedback and accountability throughout the project,” notes hospitalist Matthew Jared, MD, Diplomat ABFM and participant in the first iteration of the RADEO program. “It’s also great to have access to the common wisdom on such a challenging topic available when our team ran into a wall. It’s been a great learning experience.”

The Implementation Guide was written by an interdisciplinary team of authors including clinicians that specialize in hospital medicine, anesthesiology, pharmacy and pain management in order to provide a well-rounded perspective on opioid management in the hospital setting. This project was supported by a grant from Medtronic (formerly Covidien, LP). The authors had full responsibility in designing and compiling the guide. Covidien had no involvement in, or influence over, the development of the content included in this Guide.