• Juliette F Spelman, Stephanie Peglow, Amy R Schwartz, Lucille Burgo-Black, Katelyn McNamara, and William C Becker.
• Departments of Internal Medicine, VA Connecticut Healthcare System West Haven, CT.
• Pain Med. 2017 Dec 1; 18 (12): 2325-2330.

ObjectiveOpioid prescribing for chronic pain significantly contributes to opioid overdose deaths in the United States. Naloxone as a take-home antidote to opioid overdose is underutilized and has not been evaluated in the high-risk chronic pain population. The objective was to increase overdose education and naloxone distribution (OEND) to high-risk patients on long-term opioid therapy for pain by utilizing group visits in primary care.DesignQuality improvement intervention among two primary care clinics.SettingA large, academic facility within the Veterans Health Administration.SubjectsPatients prescribed ≥100 mg morphine-equivalent daily dose or coprescribed opioids and benzodiazepines.MethodsOne clinic provided usual care with respect to OEND; another clinic encouraged attendance at an OEND group visit to all of its high-risk patients.ResultsWe used attendance at group visits, prescriptions of naloxone issued, and patient satisfaction scores to evaluate this format of OEND.Key ResultsGroup OEND visits resulted in significantly more naloxone prescriptions than usual care. At these group visits, patients were engaged, valued the experience, and all requested a prescription for the naloxone kit.ConclusionThis quality improvement pilot study suggests that OEND group visits are a promising model of care.2017 American Academy of Pain Medicine. This work is written by US Government employees and is in the public domain in the US.

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