Risk-based strategy for outpatient pharmacy practice: Focus on opioids

Area of Science:

• Pharmacy Practice
• Pharmacovigilance
• Public Health

Background:

• The U.S. healthcare system experiences significant drug misadventures, particularly with opioids.
• Current opioid management strategies primarily focus on access control, neglecting patient use issues.
• Community pharmacy practice has historically prioritized drug distribution over optimal patient use.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify limitations in current community pharmacy practices regarding opioid management.
• To propose a systemic change through a risk-assessment and management strategy for opioids.
• To enhance patient safety and reduce opioid-related morbidity and mortality.

Main Methods:

• Literature review and synthesis of current practices.
• Identification of limitations in community pharmacy opioid handling.
• Proposal of a novel risk-based practice model.

Main Results:

• Contemporary community pharmacy practices have limitations contributing to opioid misuse.
• Existing opioid management approaches are insufficient due to a lack of focus on patient use.
• Pharmacists' training emphasizes distribution, potentially overlooking critical aspects of safe opioid utilization.

Conclusions:

• A new practice model is proposed for managing high-risk medications like opioids.
• This model involves pre-identifying dangerous agents for a formalized risk-based strategy.
• Key components include enhanced patient education and mandated follow-up to improve outcomes.