Opioid-related overdoses and deaths are steadily rising. To combat this epidemic, health care professionals must do all that they can to stop the diversion of opioids and other controlled substances. Drug diversion impacts patient and staff safety, increases hospital costs, has the potential to cause infectious disease outbreaks, and can result in significant fines to hospitals for inadequate safeguards. Diversion of controlled substances may result in a patient's insufficient pain control, substandard care from impaired practitioners, and risk of infections from compromised vials and syringes. Negative publicity from failing to implement effective strategies to prevent diversion can lead to compromised public trust in an organization.
This program will provide guidance to assess your organization's medication-use processes for vulnerabilities and identify strategies that may improve the capacity to prevent or detect diversion. Speakers will review the use of technologies and other effective diversion prevention tactics that can be implemented in health systems. Discussion of the potential for an increase in drug diversion due to job-related stressors during the COVID-19 crisis will also be covered. Attendees who participate in this program will discover key and unique strategies to mitigate diversion risk and meet the needs of your organization's opioid stewardship program.
Webinar Recording
Supporting Material
Learning Objectives
- Identify practices that support medication safety and eliminate risks for drug diversion.
- Discuss interventions to minimize diversion of controlled substances through supply chain management.
- Recognize components of a diversion stewardship program that are essential in light of the recent increase in job-related stressors.
Speakers
Christopher Fortier, PharmD, FASHP, Chief Pharmacy Officer, Massachusetts General Hospital
Ryan Haumschild, PharmD, MS, MBA, Director of Pharmacy Services, Emory Healthcare
CE Accreditation
No continuing education credits are available for this activity.
This activity is supported by Fresenius Kabi.
