Opioid misuse has caused the health care industry to really stop and look at how patients are
treated and what they can do to prevent further opioid misuse. Health care providers have created
policies on how they are using prescription opioid as well as pain management options both at
home and while they are patients in the facility. The opioid epidemic has also led to health care
regulating the time frame between opioid prescriptions being filled as well as ensuring that
patients are having regular checkups with their providers to prevent further opioid misuse and
dependence. As the opioid epidemic continues, and in many places gets worse, it is important for
health care providers to continue creating and reviewing health policies that address the supply
and demand of opioids and how to navigate away from that initial response of opioids always
being the answer (
Holton et al., 2018
). By creating policies that regulate how health care
providers can use opioids, it helps eliminate the supply of opioids that are readily available to the
public as well as helping to ensure that only those who absolutely need the opioids are able to get
them.
Reference:
Holton, D., White, E., & McCarty, D.
(2018).
Public Health Policy Strategies to Address the Opioid
Epidemic.
Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics
, 103(6), 959-
962.
https://doi.org/10.1002/cpt.992
