Opiod Crisis, What Next?

The opioid abuse epidemic has already hit hospitals hard which has prompted the federal government to allocate more than $500 million to address the problem. Now new research published in  Health Affairs finds that the crisis has also hurt hospitals financially. Between 2002 and 2012, hospitalizations due to opioid use or addiction increased by more than 200,000, according to the research. In the same time frame, dangerous infections such as endocarditis nearly doubled among those patients, reaching 6,535 in 2012.The figures have put an increasing burden on the cost of treating these patients is skyrocketing as well. In this case hospitals charged nearly $15 billion for opioid-related inpatient care, an increase of more than double since 2002, even adjusting for inflation. Meanwhile, the cost of treating associated infections surpassed $700 million. Much like the patient volumes, the costs are highly conservative as they do not account for costs such as post-discharge care, even though such patients typically require follow-up in nursing homes or at home.

These results will heighten discussions on the addiction epidemic by making clear that, beyond its status as a public health crisis, it is also a public cost matter. Increasingly tax payers are having to pick up a share of the costs, outside of the Affordable Care Act. So what is the answer? Intelligent adherence monitoring tools offer an alternative approach to the present broken system. They provide the accurate and secure dispensation of critical solid dose medication, on time every time. By treating vulnerable patients more effectively we might go so way to help prevent these cases, we might also be able to save money for all of us.

Graham Howieson CEO/Inventor/Co- Founder eLucid m Health Ltd who develop best in class adherence monitoring solutions such as the  Med eBottle www.elucid-mhealth.com