Tomah VA Opioid Safety Initiative Data
Tomah VA Medical Center
U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA) Dr. David J. Shulkin recently said, “Many Veterans enrolled in the VA health-care system suffer from high rates of chronic pain and the prescribing of opioids may be necessary medically. And while VA offers other pain-management options to reduce the need for opioids, it is important that we are transparent on how we prescribe opioids, so Veterans and the public can see what we are doing in our facilities and the progress we have made over time.”
As a part of a learning health system using the current best evidence to learn and improve, the Tomah VA continually develops and refines best practices for the care of Veterans. Highlights from Tomah VA data points include:
- Reduced the percentage of Veterans receiving an opioid by 41% (since Fiscal Year 2012 (FY12).
- Reduced the number of Veterans receiving >100 Morphine Equivalent Daily Dose (MEDD) by almost 60% (since FY12).
- Reduced the number of Veterans receiving >400 MEDD by 73% (since FY12).
- Reduced the number of Veterans receiving an opioid and benzodiazepine by 58% (since FY12).
- 96% of Veterans prescribed an opioid have completed a positive Urine Drug Screen.
- Safety is paramount for those Veterans prescribed an opioid. We’ve dispensed more than 735 Naloxone Kits to Veterans. This kit reverses a potential overdose by blocking the opioids.
VA currently uses a multifaceted approach to reduce the need for the use of opioids among Veterans. Since 2012, the Opioid Safety Initiative has focused on the safe use and slow and steady decrease in VA opioid dispensing. The Tomah VA also uses other therapies, including physical therapy and Whole Health complementary and integrative health alternatives, such as meditation, yoga and cognitive-behavioral therapy.
“We’re dedicated to providing world-class health care to our Veteran community,” said Victoria Brahm, Director of the Tomah VA Medical Center. “But these data points are not the only avenues of improvement at the Tomah VA. Our culture, psychological safety and patient satisfaction scores are increasing significantly. We’ve improved VA’s “Best Places to Work” metric by more than 26% in the past two years – now to 29th overall in the nation.”
