Envision Healthcare Provides Best Practices to Address America’s Devastating Opioid Epidemic

Envision Healthcare, a leading national medical group, released a comprehensive strategy to address America’s pervasive opioid epidemic. Envision’s approach, which is detailed in a new white paper, includes clinical treatment recommendations and public policy options based on the extensive medical expertise and leadership of its 25,000 clinicians.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 932,000 people in the United States have died from a drug overdose since 1999. In 2020 alone, opioids were involved in 68,630 overdose deaths – nearly 75 percent of all drug overdose deaths. Several factors have exacerbated the opioid crisis in recent years, including the COVID-19 pandemic, which has increased stress-related drug misuse, disrupted recovery meetings and impaired crucial support for at-risk individuals. Additionally, the marked expansion of illicitly manufactured, potent synthetic opioids has flooded the U.S. with lethal counterfeit opioid pain pills, increasing the danger of non-prescribed opioids.

“Envision clinicians have worked for years to safely reduce opioid prescriptions and provide patients with the most clinically appropriate treatment and guidance while setting them up for long-term success,” said Josh Bloomstone, MD, MSc, FASA, SSGB, Senior Vice President of Clinical Innovation and Practice Transformation at Envision Healthcare. “We are pleased to provide a patient-focused strategy to help stop opioid misuse and abuse and save people’s lives. It will take everyone – clinicians, public policymakers and community members – working together to confront this epidemic.”

Envision’s white paper evaluates the appropriate medical treatment to help prevent and treat Opioid Use Disorder, a condition that affects approximately 3 million Americans. The recommendations include specialty-specific tactics to support patients throughout their care journey, including emergency medicine care, surgery, women’s and children’s care and outpatient pain and addiction treatment.

The paper also details advocacy approaches with clinicians and policymakers working to improve patient care. Envision is committed to:

• Advocating for public policy that does not further stigmatize opioid use
• Supporting programs that prioritize preventing addiction, reducing overdose deaths and enhancing access to treatment
• Evaluating successful efforts abroad that prioritize treatment over incarceration and criminalization, as well as implementing policies that have yielded positive, evidence-based results
• Assessing successful policies in the U.S., such as those evaluated by the National Academy for State Health Policy, to address the opioid crisis

The full white paper is available here.

About Envision Healthcare Corporation

Envision Healthcare Corporation is a leading national medical group that delivers physician and advanced practice provider services, primarily in the areas of emergency and hospitalist medicine, anesthesiology, radiology/teleradiology, and neonatology to more than 1,800 clinical departments in healthcare facilities in 45 states and the District of Columbia. Post-acute care is delivered through an array of clinical professionals and integrated technologies which, when combined, contribute to efficient and effective population health management strategies. As a leader in ambulatory surgical care, AMSURG holds ownership in more than 250 surgery centers in 34 states and the District of Columbia, with medical specialties ranging from gastroenterology to ophthalmology and orthopedics. In total, the medical group offers a differentiated suite of clinical solutions on a national scale with a local understanding of our communities, creating value for health systems, payers, providers, and patients. For additional information, visit www.envisionhealth.com.

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