Nearly Opioid-free E.R. in NJ

I saw this article and thought to pass it on. I don't know about all of their techniques, but I would love to see my hospital to continue moving away from handing out narcotics...

Moving Toward an (Almost) Opioid-Free Emergency Department

"...One emergency department in New Jersey has taken the lead in fighting the opioid epidemic. St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center in Paterson, New Jersey, launched the Alternatives to Opiates (ALTO) program in January 2016 to drastically cut the use of opioids in the ED without sacrificing pain relief..."

[Guest219794]

Some cool stuff here. I think a lot of this stuff will work on people with pain, but no history of drug abuse, or with a history of frequent narcotic administration/prescriptions.

Unfortunately, these treatments do nothing to treat the pain of not being high.

And some are time consuming for the doc. Tricky in a busy ER.

And........

Many people still need opioids, particularly cancer patients or those with chronic pain syndromes related to trauma or fibromyalgia

I am a little skeptical on this one.

[chare]

https://allnurses.com/emergency-nursing/no-pain-meds-1044622.html

[NurseOnAMotorcycle, ASN, RN]

I thought this was relevant: "...Last updated on: September 15, 2016"

[chare]

I thought this was relevant: "...Last updated on: September 15, 2016"

I agree, this is a relevant topic. It was not my intent to either suggest it wasn't, or that you shouldn't have posted this. Rather, as this subject had been previously discussed, and I was unsure as to whether or not you had seen it, I posted it as I thought you might be interested in reading the previous comments.

[wyosamRN]

Hey lets not focus all on the plight of fibro afflicted and forget about the dilaudid needs of the cyclic vomiters. Lets fight opiate addiction, but we better not consider throwing a bullsh*t flag on these slam dunk diagnoses.

Some cool stuff here. I think a lot of this stuff will work on people with pain, but no history of drug abuse, or with a history of frequent narcotic administration/prescriptions.

Unfortunately, these treatments do nothing to treat the pain of not being high.

And some are time consuming for the doc. Tricky in a busy ER.

And........

Many people still need opioids, particularly cancer patients or those with chronic pain syndromes related to trauma or fibromyalgia

I am a little skeptical on this one.

[nurse2033, MSN, RN]

Thanks for posting this, this just dropped into my world. I'd like to hear from someone who works in a nearly narc free ED and see how it is going.