Prescription opioid use and misuse have reached a crisis level in the U.S., with roughly 58 opioid prescriptions for every 100 residents in 2017 and more than 46 people dying daily from overdoses involving prescription opioids. (Source: Centers for Disease Control Opioid Prescribing Rate Maps). Although treatment plans and improved support options for managing opioid medications for individuals with chronic pain are being developed, implementing these evidence-based strategies in real world primary care settings can be challenging. Community and healthcare centers that treat patients who use opioids long-term for their chronic pain struggle with this issue and need tools and structured guidance in order to make meaningful change. This session will introduce the Six Building Blocks program which provides an evidence-based quality improvement roadmap to help primary care teams implement effective, guideline-driven care for their chronic pain and long-term opioid therapy patients. The session will discuss lessons learned during the implementation of this program and address key elements needed to transform systems of care. Faculty will also discuss upcoming opportunities for more in depth training and resource development designed to address pain management and opioid misuse in the primary care setting.
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Presenters
Senior Investigator Michael Parchman, MD, MPH, is a nationally recognized scholar in chronic illness care research at Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute’s MacColl Center for Health Care Innovation. A family practitioner and health services researcher, Dr. Parchman previously served as the director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s Practice-Based Research Network Initiative and senior advisor for primary care.Dr. Parchman’s research focuses on using complexity science to explore how diverse health care teams can work together to achieve high-quality care. He leads Healthy Hearts Northwest, a three-year project for primary care practices in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho that is funded as part of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)’s EvidenceNOW initiative. The project aims to help practices improve their patients’ cardiovascular health by expanding their existing quality improvement capacity.