Quality Improvement Intiative Health, Medicine, Nursing Coursework (Coursework Sample)

Opioid Prescription Overdose Quality Improvement Initiative
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Introduction
Opioid is a drug used to treat severe pain, especially in cancer patients. According to Volkow et al. (2016), approximately more than 30 percent of the American population experiences a type of severe pain with the frequency being higher in older adults, approximately more than 40%. There has been a main public health problem in the US over the years because of opioid prescription overdose. A study carried out by Park et al (2015) found that there was a steady increase over the decades in the number of deaths caused by drug overdose mainly relating to opioid anesthetics and that they were the principal root causes of death resulting from injury in the US. According to Seth et al. (2018), 63,632 Americans lost their lives due to overdose prescription in the US and 66.4 percent of these deaths were caused by opioid: prescription opioid analgesics (like oxycodone and morphine) and illicit opioids like illicitly manufactured fentanyl (IMF) and heroin. The most commonly abused opioid is opioid analgesic hydrocodone bitartrate which is customarily accessible when blended with non-opioid analgesics.