59 pounds of prescription medications collected at Southern Hills Hospital’s “Crush the Crisis” Event

Southern Hills Hospital & Medical Center September 10, 2019

LAS VEGAS, NV- Saturday, September 7th, Southern Hills Hospital and Medical Center in conjunction with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police department held the hospital's first ever opioid and prescription drug take back event. During the event, 59 pounds of prescription drugs were collected from dozens of valley residents.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, there were more than 400 overdose deaths involving opioids in 2017.

"Opioid addiction is a crisis that touches families all over the country and right here in Southern Nevada," Alexis Mussi, Southern Hills Hospital Chief Executive Officer. "We believe our 'Crush the Crisis' event is a step in the right direction to help address opioid addiction, and get unused medications out of the wrong hands. We're thankful our first ever take back event was a success, with nearly 60 pounds of prescription medications collected."

Southern Hills Hospital's event was part of HCA Healthcare's first national "Crush the Crisis" opioid take back day. More than 65 HCA Healthcare facilities across 15 states united to collect unused or expired opioids for one day.

HCA Healthcare, Southern Hills Hospital's parent company, also proudly partners with the National Academy of Medicine's Action Collaborative on Countering the U.S. Opioid Epidemic, consisting of more than 50 organizations that share best practices and identify gaps in the safe treatment of opioid addiction.

A learning health system, which uses data from approximately 31 million annual patient encounters to help continuously improve care, HCA Healthcare has been using the science of "big data" to reduce opioid misuse and transform pain management, with initiatives in surgical, emergency and other care settings, including:

Enhanced Surgical Recovery (ESR)/ALTernatives to Opioids in the Emergency Room (ALTO in the ER): HCA Healthcare focuses on a multi-modal approach to acute pain management. This means two or more methods or medications are used to reduce the need to use opioids to manage a patient's pain while recovering from surgery or in the emergency room. As of August 2019, ESR is live at 140 HCA Healthcare facilities, with the goal to implement in all facilities, in at least one major service line, by the end of 2019. ALTO protocols will be expanded enterprise-wide by the end of 2019.

Electronic Prescribing of Controlled Substances (EPCS): Physicians have access to aggregated electronic health records that make it more difficult for medication-seekers to doctor-shop or alter prescriptions. ECPS is available across HCA Healthcare.