#Arwr conversations drivers#

This makes conversations with patients much easier because we can say, “We are all trying to help you, and to help I need to follow these guidelines.” But it happened, and now we have a document that is easy to read, print out, and post, which includes the logos for all major Alaska hospitals. It didn’t happen overnight-one area we discussed a lot is how many opiates should be written for a post-acute injury. In 2016, physicians started working with state legislators to draft evidence-based, clinical prescribing guidelines. We’d need to put aside differences to move forward.

#Arwr conversations drivers#

Compounding the problem, every major hospital is owned by a different organization with its own economic drivers and reasons for making decisions, and its own EHR. Many of us have an easier time abiding by a patient’s request for an IV Dilaudid than having a real conversation about what’s driving the patient’s pain. I’ll never forget when one of the men told us, “Each one of you has given me opiates at some point because your satisfaction scores and getting me out of the emergency department were more important than my life.” One of biggest motivators for me, personally, was a conversation between physicians and two sober, recovering opioid addicts at a hospital meeting.

In particular, by prioritizing metrics like patient satisfaction-which CMS’ Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) Survey linked to pain until 2016-we were unintentionally enabling addicts.Īs our doctors started to see evidence of the opioid crisis escalating (an uptick in patients demanding IV painkillers, more violence toward clinicians, etc.), we knew we needed to make serious changes to our entire system.

Given the relatively “small” number of patients cared for within this vast backdrop, it’s easy to believe our state healthcare leaders are giving patients the personalized treatment they need to live their best lives.īut as the opioid crisis sunk its teeth into rural states like ours between 20, we began to see how our good intentions were failing patients.

Alaska’s healthcare system serves a population of 740,000 spread across 663,000 square miles.