In a robust webinar discussion on the merits of pharmacy stewardship of opioids and antibiotics, panelists from Inovalon talked about the criteria for a well-designed stewardship program, and how hospitals and pharmacies can work together to generate the best outcomes for patients while improving patient safety.
MedCity News Editor-in-Chief and webinar moderator Arundhati Parmar asked Inovalon Principal Implementation Engineer Josh Caraccio what good stewardship means and why hospitals should invest in stewardship programs.
“It’s about assessing what those hospital’s goals are,” he responded. “Is it improving the way patients are discharged? Is it about reducing readmission rates? What is it that their stewardship program can align on? Is it drug spend or length of stay? Reducing C. difficile?”
For antibiotics, near-real-time surveillance can bring together cultures, labs, medication orders, and nursing documentation to surface and prioritize cases that might otherwise be found later through manual chart review.
While antibiotic and opioid stewardship share many foundational principles, opioid stewardship presents additional considerations, particularly around patient-specific risks and transitions of care.
Opioid stewardship demands close surveillance as well but there are different concerns. Martha Tran, Pharm.D., Senior Director of Customer Operations at Inovalon outlined some of the important patient considerations.
“Are they on any additional sedating medications? Do they have any substance abuse in their background? When our opioid patients are being prepared to be discharged, we need to make sure that our stewardship isn’t stopping at the door. We need to make sure that the patient understands what to expect and ensure a clear handoff to the outpatient team, who will follow up with the patient.”
Additional takeaways from the webinar include:
- Stewardship goes beyond compliance. Effective programs support long-term improvements in patient safety, clinical quality, and operational performance.
- Clinical surveillance enables more targeted interventions. Timely, actionable insights help pharmacists prioritize patients who may benefit most from intervention.
- Antibiotic and opioid stewardship share a common foundation. Surveillance, risk prioritization, interdisciplinary collaboration, and follow-through are essential to both.
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Photo: Viktor Cvetkovic, Getty Images