A new study has found that after a national initiative took aim at high opioid doses and potentially dangerous drug combinations, the number of veterans receiving such prescriptions dropped. The study looks at the effect of the Opioid Safety Initiative (OSI), which the Veterans Health Administration rolled out in late 2013 to promote safer opioid prescribing. The study examines implementation of the OSI across all of the nation's 141 VA hospitals. Over a two-year period, high-dose opioid prescribing declined by 16 percent, and very-high-dose opioid prescribing dropped by 24 percent. An abstract of the study is available in the journal Pain. A summary of the study is available on the Science Daily website.
For more on veteran health care, visit the Military.com Benefits Center.
