Intermountain Quantifies Goal to Cut Opioid Prescriptions

The need to reduce access to opioid pain medications is pretty well accepted at this point, though much of the outcry is vague and often geared toward echoing statistics about the very real epidemic of addiction and death. However, Intermountain Health, which operates InstaCare urgent care centers in Utah and Idaho, has gone a step further by crunching its own numbers and devising a plan to cut opioid prescriptions across its systems by 40% by the end of 2018. According to an article published in The Salt Lake Tribune in Utah, Intermountain has already trained 2,500 prescribers on strategies to reduce opioid use, and is currently focusing on cases of acute pain. Intermountain operates 22 hospitals and 18 clinics. It says the goal of a 40% reduction takes into account patients who have a legitimate clinical need for the level of pain management offered by opioids.