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to limit their use and wean patients off of them.
No one's more qualified than past patients to provide advice about
future patients, so the hospital holds catered reunion lunches once a
month in a second-floor training room to get feedback on what
patients liked and what they think could have been better.
"For example," says Ms. Ford, "we had a patient last week who
had opioids left over and wasn't sure what to do with them. So we
had a pharmacist come in and talk about how to get rid of those.
We've had patients tell us they were getting constipated from pain
medications. So now we tell patients that when they go home, to
drink lots of fluids, eat a high-fiber diet and, if necessary, take some
stool softeners. We've learned a lot from the patients and it's
improved the education we provide."
OSM
— Jim Burger
