Opioid addiction is driving the drug overdoses which are claiming too many lives in the US. In 2015 alone, 718 people in Washington state died from opioid-related overdoses. The epidemic is growing quickly, devastating Washington families and communities. There are many factors driving this crisis and nobody can solve it alone. Together the Washington Health…
Balancing effective pain management and patient-centered opioid prescribing is a primary goal for our health care community. Opioids, medications that relieve pain, can be harmful when over prescribed or when prescribed incorrectly. In our State, hospitalizations from opioid overdose and even death from prescription opioids and heroin have increased significantly in the past ten years.[i]…
Our health care system is great at many things – like developing innovative ways of treating and managing illness. However, we often don’t know when enough is enough. Low back pain is a prime example of a health care topic that often has too much treatment but that is very common. Almost 80% of us will have some low…
