Implementation of required sedation assessment in nursing workflow to address naloxone utilization

Opioid-related adverse drug events continue to occur. This study aimed to characterize the patient population receiving naloxone to inform future intervention efforts.

We describe a case series of patients who received naloxone in the hospital during a 16-week time frame in 2016. Data were collected on other administered medications, reason for admission to the hospital, pre-existing diagnoses, comorbidities, and demographics.

Twelve hospitals within a large healthcare system.

46,952 patients were admitted during the study period. 31.01 percent (n = 14,558) of patients received opioids, of which 158 received naloxone.

Administration of naloxone. Main outcome of interest: Sedation assessment via Pasero Opioid-Induced Sedation Scale (POSS), administration of sedating medications.

POSS score was documented prior to opioid administration in 93 (58.9 percent) patients. Less than half of patients had a POSS documented prior to naloxone administration with 36.8 percent documented 4 hours prior. 58.2 percent of patients received multimodal pain therapy with other nonopioid medications. Most patients received more than one sedating medication concurrently (n = 142, 89.9 percent).

Our findings highlight areas for intervention to prevent opioid oversedation. Investing in electronic clinical decision support mechanisms, such as sedation assessment, could detect patients at risk for oversedation and ultimately prevent the need for naloxone. Coordinated order sets for pain management can reduce the percentage of patients receiving multiple sedating medications and promote the use of multimodal pain management in efforts to reduce opioid reliance while optimizing pain control.