West Valley Medical Center collected 71 pounds of medications during the hospital's third annual “Crush the Crisis” opioid take back event on Saturday, October 28, 2023. The event, in partnership with the Caldwell Police Department, was aligned with the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) National Prescription Drug Take Back Day.
“We are grateful our community showed up to help Crush the Crisis today. A significant number of opioid addictions and overdose deaths come from individuals accessing unused opioid prescriptions of family and friends. That's why events like this are so important, not only to provide an opportunity for the community to properly dispose of medications, but also to educate," said Dr. Richard Augustus, West Valley Chief Medical Officer.
West Valley Medical Center was part of HCA Healthcare’s fifth annual national “Crush the Crisis” prescription drug take back day. In October 2022, all 15 HCA Healthcare U.S. divisions hosted events at more than 100 locations across 17 states. In total, approximately 19,423 pounds, equivalent to 13.4 million doses, of unused and expired prescription medications were collected. West Valley has now collected nearly 250 pounds of medications in the three years the hospital has participated.
As a part of their commitment to combat prescription drug misuse, HCA Healthcare, the parent company of West Valley Medical Center, has worked with the National Academy of Medicine’s (NAM) Action Collaborative on Countering the U.S. Opioid Epidemic. HCA Healthcare has given $750,000 to the Collaborative to support the development of safer pain management protocols and the reversal of the opioid crisis.
As a learning health system, HCA Healthcare uses data from approximately 37 million annual patient encounters to help continuously improve care. The organization uses the science of “big data” to reduce prescription drug misuse and transform pain management, with initiatives in surgical, emergency and other care settings, including:
- Enhanced Surgical Recovery (ESR): a multi-modal approach to pain management using pre-, intra- and post-operative interventions to optimize outcomes. HCA Healthcare’s ESR programs have demonstrated significant improvements in surgical recovery and patient satisfaction, including an up to 44% decrease in opioid usage for some surgeries.
- Electronic Prescribing of Controlled Substances (EPCS): aims to stem increasing rates of prescription pain reliever-related addiction, misuse diversion and death by making it more difficult for medication-seekers to doctor-shop and alter prescriptions. Physicians have access to aggregated electronic health records, providing data that will allow them to prescribe opioids judiciously.
In 2022, there were more than 109,000 drug overdose deaths in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an increase from 2021. The CDC reported 381 Idahoans died from overdoses last year.