Opioid Stewardship & Orthopaedic Surgery

Matt Lowe, MDiv, MSN, APRN, FNP-C, ONC, sat down with Diane Jeselskis, BSN, RN, ONC and Lisa Holtz, RN, MSN, ONC, to discuss their organization’s practice at combating the opioid epidemic. Traditionally, the healthcare system prescribes opioids to patients with a no pain goal, but the practice has led to a high distribution of opioid use has led to a high distribution of opioid prescriptions and poor patient outcomes. According to the CDC, 75% of drug overdoses in 2020 involved opioids. Diane and Lisa discuss other modalities such as nerve blocks, regional and peripheral anesthesia as well as non-narcotic medication like anti-inflammatories and NSAIDs to reduce pain. In addition, we’ll discuss patient situations for cold compression devices, deep breathing, and injectable medication treatments that can be used 2 weeks post- surgery. They’ll discuss multimodal pain management and ERAS (enhanced recovery after surgery) protocols for orthopaedic surgery patients to reduce readmission rates, costs, and length of stay, as well as improve patient satisfaction.