Wednesday, January 15, 2025
1/15/2025
Inspira Health (Inspira), the largest hospital system in Southern New Jersey (NJ), will implement a multifaceted collaborative and comprehensive approach to optimizing the use of opioid alternatives to reduce the risk of inappropriate use and misuse of opioids. The Inspira ALTO-ED project will be implemented across Inspira’s five Emergency Department (ED) locations serving NJ counties: Gloucester, Cumberland, and Salem. The population of focus are patients presenting with either renal colic, musculoskeletal pain, abdominal pain, and migraine headache. The project uses the Alternatives to Opioids (ALTO) strategy developed by St. Joseph’s University Medical Center, in Paterson, NJ, to encourage the use of non-opiate approaches as first-line treatment for pain conditions. In addition to the ALTO approach, this project also employs various evidence-based strategies, including electronic clinical decision supports (order sets, discharge algorithm), cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), and the targeted distribution of Narcan (naloxone kits). A multi-disciplinary project team of Inspira staff representing pharmacy, emergency medicine, clinical informatics, behavioral health, and nursing will lead this project’s implementation. As an academic teaching network, Inspira is committed to educating others to maximize the quality of medical care. Therefore, this project will also focus education and training of providers and other healthcare professionals as well as patients. The project’s goals are to 1). optimize the use of person-centered non-opioid treatment options for patients at Inspira’s ED locations, who present with either renal colic, musculoskeletal pain, abdominal pain, and migraine headache, to reduce the risk of future opioid misuse, dependence, addiction, and/or overdose; 2). improve access to harm reduction strategies and OUD treatment to reduce prescription drug/opioid overdose-related overdose among Inspira ED patients with pain conditions and diagnosed OUD; 3). improve the knowledge and awareness of non-opioid treatment best practices among Inspira ED physicians and local community-based healthcare providers to improve continuity of care for patients after ED discharge; 4). disseminate the project’s results, lessons learned, and best practices to the healthcare professionals at large to increase the implementation of alternatives to opioids in similar small community hospital settings. To achieve these goals, the project will implement ALTO pain management order sets as well as a discharge algorithm in Inspira’s electronic health record system; develop and implement protocols and training on opioid alternative treatment protocols and best practices; ensure culturally competent care for patients by providing monthly lectures on diversity, equity, and inclusion to clinical staff as well as patient education materials in both English and Spanish; expand access to behavioral therapy as a non-opioid treatment alternative by training behavioral health therapists trained in cognitive behavioral therapy and MBSR; screen, assess, and treatment patients diagnosed with OUD; provide Inspira ED, urgent care, and primary care providers with training and education resources on Buprenorphine prescribing and administration; provide naloxone and overdose education instruction kits to patients at risk of overdose/in active withdrawal (patients who are opiate-tolerant); and collaborate with OUD outpatient provider organizations to create an ED-to-outpatient referral pathway. Inspira will also host annual in-person symposiums to educate local health professionals on the best practices and protocols related to the use of opioid prescriptions and alternatives to opioids. The project team will also share the project’s results and best practices through annual presentations at professional conferences and articles submitted for publication to peer-reviewed professional and academic journals.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).