St. Vincent's HealthCare is announcing successful pilot program to reduce the use of opioids

Jacksonville, FL — With all the concerns surrounding opioid addiction and abuse in the US, St. Vincent's HealthCare is announcing a successful pilot program they say reduces the use of opioids in joint replacement patients by 76%.

Tom VanOsdol, president and CEO of St. Vincent's HealthCare, says the program included 275 joint replacement patients, who were prescribed non-narcotic pain medications, on a volunteer basis.

He says the success wasn't just with reducing the opioid use, but reducing pain, as well.

"We ran a kind of control, a patient satisfaction question around their management of their pain, their perception of their pain, and their tolerance of their pain... and what we were hoping was we would be able to significantly reduce opioid use while not negatively impacting their pain. Remarkably, what we found was we positively impacted patient's pain scores. They're reporting less pain, they're reporting greater pain tolerance, and they're reporting greater overall management of their pain, throughout their hospitalization," explains VanOsdol.

We're told the pain medications used in the pilot program don't have any addictive qualities and include substances like Tylenol.

Looking to build on the success of this program, VanOsdol says they are hoping to expand beyond joint replacement surgeries, with similar results.

"We don't have the next cohort of defined patient population, but clearly, with this success, we've demonstrated that we can appropriately, and in fact, better manage patients' pain and not expose them to potential opioid dependency. So, it is, in fact, what I would call our obligation to extend this pilot to other patient populations and to make this ultimately the standard of care in every patient room that's appropriate," says VanOsdol.

He says St. Vincent's wants to be at the forefront of helping solve the opioid epidemic.

"There is similar work going on in our emergency departments, to functionally eliminate or radically decrease the use of Dilaudid,which is another narcotic pain medication, so the pilot is already extending to other cohorts of patients in other settings," says VanOsdol.

Overall, he says the pilot program is about setting up patient success during their time with the hospital, but also their health and wellness outside the hospital.