The Doctor Is In: Opioid Crisis

Content Provided by Henry Ford Health System 

       Federal health officials say the number of people being prescribed opioids is decreasing. A recent report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds that opioid prescriptions overall decreased 18% from 2010 to 2015.

       However, opioids continue to be prescribed at high rates.  The acting director of the CDC says too many people are getting too many opioid prescriptions for too long at too high a dosage.

       Wednesday, Rami Khoury, M.D., an Emergency Physician from Henry Ford Allegiance Health, explains how doctors and healthcare providers are becoming more active in the fight against opioid addiction.  Dr. Khoury serves on our system-wide opioid task force made up of multiple healthcare

       In April, the State of Michigan announced a revamped Michigan Automated Prescription System (MAPS) replacing a crash-prone version that was time-consuming to use and did not provide enough data.

       The MAPS redesign provides a user-friendly portal, making it more efficient for practitioners to obtain information of controlled substances that have been dispensed.

       The state's funding announcement addresses a major barrier of how to pay for the integration faced by organizations wanting to integrate with the revamped MAPS.

       Henry Ford and its leaders have been at the forefront of combating opioid use and addiction. The Michigan Hospital Association, chaired by Bob Riney, president of Healthcare Operations, and HFHS chief operating officer, partnered closely with the state on the MAPS upgrades.

       A multi-disciplinary System-wide task force has been established to evaluate how HFHS providers prescribe these kinds of drugs and make recommendations on what changes should be made. The new MAPS is a critical part of these efforts.