San Diego's Scripps Mercy Hospital is leading an effort to encourage local emergency room physicians to change their prescribing practices in response to the opioid epidemic, according to a KPBS report.
Roneet Lev, MD, chief of emergency medicine at San Diego's Scripps Mercy Hospital, collaborated with local ED physicians to create guidelines for changing the way local EDs dispense painkillers, such as dispensing only small amounts of opioids when necessary and checking a state database to confirm patients are not physician shopping.
Under the new rules, ED patients with chronic pain will be directed to visit their primary care physician, according to a separate KPBS report.
Ten out of 19 San Diego EDs recently surveyed had "significantly reduced their prescribing since we started our safe prescribing guidelines," Dr. Lev said.