Opioid Stewardship: Building on Antibiotic Stewardship Principles

The opioid stewardship model is born out of the antimicrobial stewardship model, and thus there are many shared characteristics. Both opioid stewardship and antimicrobial stewardship are based on the principle that there is an indication for a particular medication in the right patient at the right time. As antimicrobial stewardship is in a later stage of development, looking at the two in parallel can lead to interesting learning and development opportunities for opioid stewardship. Two requirements of antimicrobial stewardship that need to be applied to opioid stewardship for optimum outcomes are the requirement for dedicated resources, more specifically a trained pharmacist, and a declaration that opioid stewardship is essential for health-system accreditation.