Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Special Edition: Opioids - January 2020 - Subscribe to Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.

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4 0 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 0 Y ou could make a legitimate argument that the CDC's labeling of pain as "the fifth vital sign" in 2001 did more harm than good and directly contributed to the current opioid crisis, a problem deeply rooted in physicians' attempts to completely eliminate pain with unnecessary or unnecessarily large painkiller prescriptions. "Opioids themselves aren't the problem," says Charles Luke, MD, MBA, FASAM, director of acute interventional perioperative pain and regional anesthesiology at the University of Pittsburgh (Pa.) Medical Center, where in recent years surgeons are writing 50% fewer opioid prescriptions. "The problem is that they've been overutilized for decades." Jared Bilski | Senior Associate Editor Can You Cut Opioid Use in Half? Reducing your reliance on painkillers is a more realistic goal than trying to eliminate them completely. • SPLIT DOSE Capitalizing on multiple analgesic methods limits the risks associat- ed with the overprescribing of opioids.

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