“Eastside’s goal with ‘Crush the Crisis’ was to raise awareness of the dangers of opioid addiction and educate our community about the proper disposal of these medications, “ said Dr. Stephen Higgins, Chief Medical Officer at Eastside Medical Center. “Opioid addiction can happen to anyone and by coming together as a community to safely dispose of these medications, we can all do our part to combat the opioid crisis here in Gwinnett County, and further, the nation.”
As an affiliate of HCA Healthcare, Eastside Medical Center is part of a health system that also uses the science of “big data” to reduce opioid misuse and transform pain management, with initiatives in surgical, emergency and other care settings including:
• Enhanced Surgical Recovery (ESR)/ALTernatives to Opioids in the Emergency Room (ALTO in the ER): HCA Healthcare focuses on a multi-modal approach to acute pain management. This means two or more methods or medications are employed to reduce the need to use opioids to manage a patient’s pain while recovering from surgery or in the emergency room.
• Electronic Prescribing of Controlled Substances (EPCS): Physicians have access to aggregated electronic health records that make it more difficult for medication-seekers to doctor-shop or alter prescriptions.
Approximately 65 HCA Healthcare facilities participated in a “Crush the Crisis” opioid take-back day in their communities on September 7, 2019.
