Ohio Hospital Association to Advance Effective Prescribing Practices, Education Through Coverys Community Healthcare Foundation Grant

COLUMBUS (43215) – The Ohio Hospital Association Institute for Health Innovation is expanding continuing education for opioid prescribers and benchmarking analysis of provider prescribing at Ohio hospitals this year. These new efforts are supported by the Coverys Community Healthcare Foundation which awarded OHA with a grant totaling $612,773 for its Educating Ohio’s Prescribers project.  The project will conclude in 2022.
 
“The opioid epidemic facing the country and Ohio is creating profound challenges for our communities and our health care system,” said Mike Abrams, president and CEO, OHA. “The OHA Institute has a long history of success in leading statewide programs addressing Ohio’s significant health care challenges including sepsis and infant mortality. Our new partnership with Coverys will support OHA’s opioid response initiatives by deploying robust learning opportunities and leveraging data analysis for Ohio hospitals to build effective strategies.”
 
The purpose of the Educating Ohio’s Prescribers grant is to provide education around three focus areas: guidelines and regulations, proven best practices and peer-based feedback on opioid prescribing patterns.  OHA will begin immediately with deploying programs in these areas:
 
  • Compliance education: OHA will expand use of an evidence-based education program on opioid regulations in Ohio and guideline recommendations by covering costs for hospital-affiliated physicians and advanced practice providers to enroll in the Smart RX course. OHA sponsored the initial launch the Smart RX - Smart Medicine and Responsible Treatment program in 2015. Smart RX is an advanced learning tool to help health care professionals combat Ohio’s prescription drug abuse and subsequent opioid addiction problem. The Smart Rx online training program pairs the latest expertise on reducing prescription drug abuse with online training techniques designed for today’s busy medical professional.
 
  • Comparative education: OHA will expand its Opioid Data Collaborative (ODC) and generate further benchmark groups to be used in peer to peer education and support programs at participating hospitals. OHA launched the ODC program in January 2019 and 70 Ohio hospitals have initially joined. The reports generated will be used by participating hospitals in educating, informing and comparing their prescribers. OHA is currently defining the most meaningful metrics and the use cases.
 
  • Best practices education: OHA will develop and present a webinar series of effective practices around opioid prescribing identified through medical literature, national comparisons and internal analysis of the OHA opioid data collaborative members.
 
“The Coverys Community Healthcare Foundation believes that this project addresses a recognized need for provider education and solutions as they respond to the opioid crisis in their communities.  We are pleased to support this work which squarely aligns with the focus of our Foundation’s grant-making efforts,” said Donna Norris, MD, board member and chair of the Coverys Charitable Giving Committee.
 
The OHA Institute for Health Innovation is the hub for the association’s education, research and clinical activities to support OHA’s overall mission to collaborate with member hospitals and health systems to ensure a healthy Ohio. The OHA Institute’s mission is to evaluate, focus and engage in change activities that lead and enable the pursuit of excellence in safety and quality and in improving the health of our communities. The Institute’s leading focus areas include infant mortality, sepsis mortality and opioid crisis.
 
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, from 1999-2016, over 690,000 people died of a drug overdose in the United States. More than 10 percent of those occurred in 2016 alone, and opioids were involved in two thirds of those deaths. Ohio is at the forefront of this crisis. Drug overdoses in Ohio claimed the lives of 5,115 Ohioans in 2017 and Ohio ranks second in per capita overdose deaths in the U.S. Opioid overdose encounters, though, speak to the ongoing burden of addiction to individuals, families and communities. In 2017, Ohio hospitals had 34,386 opioid overdose encounters—nearly double those seen in 2015 and projections for 2025 are over 90,000 opioid overdoses if current trends continue.
 
About Coverys Community Healthcare Foundation, Inc.
The Coverys Community Healthcare Foundation provides grant funding and donations to organizations and innovative programs that improve patient care and safety, promote healthy lifestyles, and support individuals and organizations providing healthcare services. The development of the Foundation exemplifies Coverys’ dedication to being an affirmative and active corporate citizen in the healthcare community and the communities in which it operates.
 
About Coverys
Coverys is a leading provider of medical professional liability insurance for medical practitioners and health systems. Coverys provides a full range of healthcare liability insurance options, advanced risk analytics, and best-in-class risk mitigation and education resources to help clients anticipate, identify, and manage risk to reduce errors and improve outcomes.
 
About OHA
Established in 1915, OHA represents 237 hospitals and 13 health systems throughout Ohio that employ 255,000 Ohioans and contribute $29.7 billion to Ohio’s economy along with $5.3 billion in net community benefit. OHA is the nation’s first state hospital association and is recognized nationally for our patient safety and health care quality initiatives and environmental sustainability programs. Guided by a mission to collaborate with member hospitals and health systems to ensure a healthy Ohio, the work of OHA centers on three strategic initiatives: advocacy, economic sustainability, and patient safety and quality. The association founded the OHA Institute for Health Innovation and OHA Solutions hospital staffing program, and is a co-founder of the Ohio Health Information Partnership and the Ohio Patient Safety Institute.