SLV Health Adopts Colorado's CURE Pilot

Alamosa and La Jara, Colorado – October 8, 2019. SLV Health’s Regional Medical Center (RMC) and Conejos County Hospital (CCH) have joined Colorado’s Opioid Solution: Clinicians United to Resolve the Epidemic (CO’s CURE) hospital medicine pilot. The RMC and CCH’s goal is to improve pain management for its patients and return them to a maximum quality of life while recognizing and controlling the inherent risks of prescribing opioids. By joining this pilot program, SLV Health’s clinicians are demonstrating their dedication to understanding and responding appropriately to their patients’ physical and emotional symptoms of pain. RMC’s Hospitalist Director Olivier deRaet adds, “We are taking these additional steps in helping our community combat the ongoing opioid epidemic. We will still prescribe opioids when they are medically necessary.”

This pilot implements components from the Colorado Opioid Prescribing and Treatment Guidelines for the Medical Inpatient, developed by the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Society of Hospital Medicine with guidance from Colorado Hospital Association, Colorado Medical Society and the Colorado Consortium for Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention. These guidelines include using alternatives to opioids (ALTOs) as the first line of defense in treating patients with conditions with pain before resorting to opioids.

According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, Colorado is at the center of the U.S. opioid epidemic with the 12th highest rate of misuse and abuse of prescription opioids across all 50 states. Colorado hospitals are in a strong position to integrate new, more effective pain management treatments that are tailored to each patient’s unique pain experience. SLV Health is very pleased to be joining this effort to reduce the opioid epidemic in Colorado.