The opioid crisis is the result of the policies practiced from the last two decades which has led to the worst drug epidemic chapter in US healthcare. Opioid usage boosted as a result of its healing factor to relieve the serious pain of any patient. However, the long-term use of this prescribed drug resulted in disastrous consequences as people become addicted to it. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are about 24 percent of patients using opioid drugs for chronic non-cancerous pain. The statistics affirm that approximately 425 patients have perished due to an opioid-related problem 2 years after their first prescription was issued. The reason might be an overdose of opioid as well. The current situation of opioid crisis is becoming severe, as more than thousands have died and millions are becoming dependant on the same in the time span of 20 years.

It is an astonishing fact that the healthcare fraternities and patients thought that opioid medication is helpful! However, the scenario is entirely different. It is a lesson for healthcare domains by learning to handle the use of any further drugs with caution.

Let's get into the depth as how the situation progressed and got of control. Very accurately, stated by Keith Wailoo that pain is a private experience while political and social values influence treatment rather than the real needs of the patient. Leaders supported opioid from the pharmaceuticals industry for soothe healthcare. The thought shared by Keith Wailoo seems to be correct. In beginning, it was used to ease the pain of near end patients; however, in 1990's the usage drug was expanded for the relief of non-cancer patients as well. As during that period of time doctors were told not to treat pain severely as it was unethical. Hence the use of opioids became general to soothe the pain. Prescribing it became a popular trend amongst the doctors as if they were helping but in reality they irrationally considered it without looking at the long-term consequences.

Steps were taken against addiction hence methods like “safe use” policies and “abuse-deterrent” pills were used by the medical community. These methods might have had a fairway at that time but the sight of a rising issue was not handled as it should be. It seemed like an arrangement between the person in pain and their viewpoint. The policy was not enough to handle the growing situation of opioid’s consumption rate as it might seem to relate the physician to its patient. However, it failed miserably when it came to relating to the same patient suffering from addiction to opioid or dying of opioid poisoning.

A medication of pain through opioids is more suitable for short term use for cancer treatment. It can form a craving in you and a part of you can be plagued. This practice only progresses and your state gains a momentary satisfaction and happiness. The opioid drug gains control on you as with the continuous use and it becomes an impossible task to curb the pattern of its repeated use. Moreover, with longer duration of opioid use, the carvings grow for higher doses to feel the same upshot. This is the major reason for the increasing opioid demand. Basically, once you are hooked you are hooked forever. West Virginia is the biggest example of such overdose and prescription practices in accordance with the stats of 2007 to 2012. During these years, about 750,000 pain-killer pills were prescribed for getting the small state hopelessly overdosed on hydrocodone and oxycodone. These numbers question the use of opioids and as a result, CMS took steps to curb this issue. It restricted over usage of drugs and put a seven-day limit on the prescription of opioids. These preventive measures will surely assist to prevent further addiction and misuse also affected the autonomous medical practice.

Here are some of the many steps to curb the opioid crisis:

Diminishing exposure

It is important to curb the population exposure to opioids as it is wrongly considered assumption that the majority at risk to these drugs are youngsters without a prescription. In fact, the age group of 45- 64 years of age forms the majority group who’s suffering from opioid addiction with prescription and going through overdose deaths. This is caused by the verifiable genuine legal prescription mostly so we can adhere to it that it is due to medical decisions. As we have identified the root cause of the issue we can control the situation of the crisis by curbing the population exposure to opioids. This can be achieved only through the renewed physician outlook to support lesser new prescriptions on pain, reducing the duration of such prescriptions, decreasing dose intensification, and relaxing tapers for persistent users unable to gain any functional experience.

Strengthening healthcare market

Electronic medical record creation is the best interface as a unified portal. It pulls out data and segregates the patients who have been earlier exposed to opioid medication. This method helps to restrict exposure to drugs and also assist in regulating the medication of those with opioid medication. This way the healthcare providers can follow the CMS guidelines to avoid opioids. It also includes the plans to reduce opioid doses if there is inadequate pain reduction or functional impairment. Procedures of lower doses at the initiation of treatment could pre-populate order screens. Creating a gateway for standing orders for physical therapy and mental health screening could be built to trigger during qualifying pain visits. Such bumps are applied strongly to curtail overuse of antibiotics.

Shaping Needs for Safer Treatment

Acute pain can be easily contained and chronic pain might have no obvious reason or definite provoking incident. Opioid’s demand is also due to the misunderstanding of chronic pain. At times the patients grow anxious to seek knowledge by medical imaging tests to get the answers. However, these tests are useless because they don’t give any insight if the pain is the only symptom. The medical treatment of such chronic pain is injurious as patients continue to hold on to believe a plausible story. The only explanation can be that the pain is directly related to patients’ physiological reason that they can profit from painkillers. It will be a difficult task to make people understand why it is they hurt to keep them away from narcotics. Education of self-awareness and medical steady patient “hurt is not harmed,” refers to physical therapy and the elevation of self-management skills will assist patients to manage their pain and lead a more productive lives.

These programs are not as expensive as a recent example is about a deliverance of behavioral pain management program through outpatient nurse visits. This is a useful method to diminish pain and elevate patient function. Supply of these methods can be enhanced through CMS’s actions to support the use of proof-based medication choices and also permitting health providers to gain awareness of non-pharmaceutical techniques. There are many non- pharmaceutical techniques where the financial gains depend on exclusively on patient functional results such as shared savings program aiming accountable care organizations (ACOs). CMS can also produce a working rank benchmark through which ACO’s achievements are measured. Quality performance standards exceeded by organizations can receive a portion of the savings they produce. These procedures can work as grounds would increase the use of more powerful unifying treatments for pain.

When the crisis will be resolved, it would be difficult to locate out at one person who was not addicted to opioids or didn't end up dead due to their doctor’s “reasonable prescription”. Also, you cannot recognize those who are benefiting using opioids with caution. This opioid crisis also correlated to the large consumption rate influencing current drug users. The crisis can only be restricted by curtailing the consumption rate of drugs. The option to use pain management approach is far safer if fewer effective drugs are involved.

We are also providing webinar for healthcare. Hope it will help you.