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SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (ABC4News) – Intermountain Healthcare is making great strides in reducing prescribed opioids.
In 2018, the health system reported that it had succeeded in reducing the number of prescription opioid tablets by 3.8 million. This includes chronic and acute pain.
The goal has not been reached yet, but experts believe this is a major step in the right direction in the fight against the opioid crisis.
"More and more of our brothers and sisters, our mothers and fathers, as well as our friends and family, are still alive," said Doug Thomas, director of the Addiction and Health Division. mental.
Intermountain Healthcare has announced a 30% reduction in opioids prescribed for the treatment of acute pain last year.
He is shy of their ambitious goal of 40%.
The health system has found the situation more difficult than it had ever imagined. Intermountain found it exponentially more difficult with each decrease of one percent.
"We realized we were doing too much, we're not there yet, we still have a long way to go," said Dr. David Hasleton.
According to the CDC, about 115 Americans die each day from an opioid overdose. Utah ranks 7th in the United States for the number of overdose deaths.
Kelly Howard of Midvale lost her son under the uncontrollable opioids in 2014.
"My daughter and I were in the intensive care unit when they turned off the machines, he was 26," Howard said.
Kelly sometimes wonders if these efforts could have saved his son or prevented Billy from ever being introduced to the oxycontin.
"Try not to think too much about that, but I'm also looking into the future and I see how many lives they could save," Howard said.
Intermountain knows that they save lives. In addition, they have reduced by almost a third opioids and benzodiazepine, an anti-anxiety medication.
"We know that the two drugs taken together increase the risk of stopping breathing and cause a lot of deaths in the community," Hasleton said.
Intermountain says that they do not want you to suffer, but they also know that most of their patients only use half of the prescribed medications.
"They ask, doctor, is this the right thing for me, or do I need it, or do I need it?"
Intermountain says that there is still work to be done, but that there is more dialogue in the emergency rooms and doctors' offices. Intermountain discovers that the more this happens, the less providers and patients retreat. Intermountain is always looking to reduce the number of pain pills for acute pain by 40%.
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