{"id":97244,"date":"2018-10-31T20:13:38","date_gmt":"2018-11-01T02:13:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/pilot-program-to-curb-opioid-addiction-to-be-expanded\/"},"modified":"2018-10-31T20:13:38","modified_gmt":"2018-11-01T02:13:38","slug":"pilot-program-to-curb-opioid-addiction-to-be-expanded","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/pilot-program-to-curb-opioid-addiction-to-be-expanded\/","title":{"rendered":"Pilot program to curb opioid addiction to be expanded"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A
A three-year pilot program to reduce opioid addiction showed promising results in 10 Colorado hospitals. Now, the program will be expanded to hospitals across the country.<\/span>Associated Press file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

WASHINGTON \u2013 A pilot program that encouraged the use of alternatives to opioids at Colorado hospitals will soon be implemented at hospitals across the country as a result of President Donald Trump signing an opioid bill into law last week.<\/p>\n

The Alternatives to Opioids in the Emergency Department Act (ALTO Act<\/a>), included in the opioid legislation that garnered bipartisan support in the U.S. House and Senate, established a permanent version of the Colorado Opioid Safety Collaborative Pilot, in which alternative painkillers were used and encouraged instead of opioids in hospitals. The program was launched in 2017 by the Colorado Hospital Association, which has endorsed the act.<\/p>\n

In an interview with The Durango Herald<\/em>, Rep. Scott Tipton said 10 Colorado hospital emergency departments, including San Luis Valley Health, decreased the use of narcotics by up to 46 percent.<\/p>\n

\"Tipton\"
Tipton<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cWe\u2019ve had a lot of people lose their lives because of this,\u201d Tipton said when referring to opioid addiction. \u201cIf we can make sure that opioids are appropriately used within the medical community and partnering with our patients, that means our families as well, it\u2019s going to be really important.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sens. Cory Gardner and Michael Bennet, along with Tipton, worked on the ALTO Act.<\/p>\n

In an interview with the Herald<\/em>, Gardner said he visited some of the hospitals in the pilot program, like San Luis Valley Health, with Tipton and Bennet for roundtable events.<\/p>\n

Gardner recalled a leading nurse at Swedish Medical Center in Englewood who told him about her son who died. The nurse said her son was a golfer who had surgery for an injury, and later died from an overdose after becoming addicted to the Vicodin prescribed to him.<\/p>\n

Tipton and Gardner both recalled stories about the effect of addiction on children; Gardner saw Narcan offered as a nasal spray so that little children could administer it to their overdosing parents, and Tipton saw babies suffering through withdrawal right after birth.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you want something that will tear your heart out, that is something that will impact you greatly,\u201d Tipton said. \u201cWe heard from all different angles, from the medical community, from individuals, from law enforcement that\u2019s having to deal with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Gardner\"
Gardner<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Gardner said after the three-year pilot program, there will be better protocols in the emergency room, better understanding of alternative pain medication and more innovation on ways to combat opioid addiction. He said the opioid bill adds to other substance abuse acts Congress has passed, including the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act 2.0, which imposed Centers for Disease Control and Prevention limits on prescriptions and appropriated money to recovery programs and first responder training.<\/p>\n

Gardner called the bill a \u201crobust bipartisan effort\u201d and said he was \u201cgrateful\u201d for Bennet\u2019s work on the Senate committees on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions and Finance in helping the bill pass. Bennet lauded Congress for passing the bill, which included four of his backed provisions, but said there is more work to be done.<\/p>\n

\"Bennet\"
Bennet<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cOur work on opioids in Washington should reflect the magnitude of the crisis ravaging communities across our country,\u201d Bennet said in a statement last week. \u201cThe measures signed into law today are a step in the right direction, but they are not enough. \u2026 We must keep working on meaningful policies to limit the flow of opioids while investing resources to treat those struggling with substance-use disorders.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tipton echoed those sentiments.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is something we\u2019re certainly looking at, as far as the problem is that we do get illicit drugs coming in illegally into the country,\u201d Tipton said. \u201cWe are getting resources to be able to try and clamp down on that. It\u2019s something that will be a moving target, I\u2019m sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mary Dengler Frey, the regional health connector at the Southwestern Area Health Education Center, a center whose mission is to \u201cimprove the quality and accessibility of health-related education,\u201d was unavailable for comment Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The Colorado General Assembly also addressed the opioid prescription issue by passing legislation in May that restricts the amount of opioids medical officials can prescribe in a seven-day supply, according to the assembly\u2019s website.<\/p>\n

Both Gardner and Tipton said the state bill did not inspire their act, but Gardner said \u201cthe Colorado perspective\u201d of how to treat parents and their children influenced their legislation more. Tipton said he was glad to see the state Legislature recognizing the opioid issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has got to be a collaborative effort in terms of long-term treatment because this isn\u2019t something that, you know, you\u2019re going to go through an afternoon program and everything\u2019s solved, if you have an addiction,\u201d Tipton said. \u201c(We) give resources back from federal and state back to our communities to be able to deal with the issue \u2026 for support.\u201d<\/p>\n

Emily Martin is a student at American University in Washington, D.C., and an intern for The Durango Herald.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

10 Colorado hospitals showed encouraging results using alternatives to opioids<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":97245,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[3131,23,24,25],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-97244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-prescription-drugs","tag-u-s-rep-scott-tipton","tag-u-s-sen-cory-gardner","tag-u-s-sen-michael-bennet"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97244"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=97244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}