Wichita, KS, November 4, 2022– Wesley Healthcare today announced that it collected 265 pounds of medications during its 4th annual “Crush the Crisis” national opioid take back day on Saturday, October 29, 2022, aligning with the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) National Prescription Drug Take Back Day, to raise awareness about the danger of opioid misuse and the importance of safe and proper disposal of unused or expired medications. This was a record year for collections at Wesley and the. Hundreds of community members participated in the event by dropping off unused and expired medications which were collected by law enforcement officers from the Wichita Police Department.
“We are thrilled with the community response since we started doing this four years ago,” said Dr. Lowell Ebersole, Wesley Healthcare’s chief medical officer. “To see triple digit growth for three straight years shows just how important events like this are for our community. We’re grateful to our media and law enforcement partners who worked with us to get unused or expired medications off the streets.”
As an affiliate of HCA Healthcare, Wesley Healthcare is part of a health system that also uses science of “big data” to reduce opioid misuse and transform pain management, with initiatives in surgical, emergency and other care settings including:
- Enhanced Surgical Recovery (ESR): a multi-modal approach to pain management using pre, intra and post-operative interventions to optimize outcomes. HCA Healthcare’s ESR programs have demonstrated significant improvements in surgical recovery and patient satisfaction, including decreases in opioid usage.
- Electronic Prescribing of Controlled Substances (EPCS): aims to stem increasing rates of opioid-related addiction, misuse diversion and death by making it more difficult for medication-seekers to doctor-shop and alter prescriptions. Physicians have access to aggregated electronic health records, providing data that will allow them to prescribe opioids judiciously.
This year, all 15 HCA Healthcare U.S. divisions participated in a “Crush the Crisis” opioid take back day at 110 collection sites across 17 states.