A huge goal announced this morning by intermountain healthcare. They want to reduce the number of opioid pills they prescribe by 40 percent. Ksl newsradio’s mary richards reports.
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40 percent a year means…
“five million tablets less in our streets, our communities our homes per year”. Emergency physician dr todd allen says it won’t come without its challenges
“the time for timidity is over. We can’t let our youth be put at risk in the same way that they have been every day. Intermountain is not going to be timid any more”
He says 7k opiod prescrips are made every day in utah, 210 million in the u-s.
“it’s not a utah problem, it’s not a city problem, it’s a problem across this country. It’s going to take aggressive and innovative ways to solve this.”
Those in chronic pain will still have access to the medications they need. This is mostly aimed at simply only popping pills for acute pain conditions, like a sprain, toothache, inflamation, etc.
Dr allen says they have new tools and policies, new ways of working on pain management with the pateint and their families. He says doctors are already getting good feedback.
