Combating the Opioid Epidemic

Through the Healthy State Alliance,  Mercy Health and The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center are jointly combating the opioid epidemic facing our state through alliances in education, research and clinical care. Together, we are focused on several efforts, including:

• Combining our clinical strengths to:
  • Improve the recognition of patients at risk for addiction;
  • Ensure safe prescribing to reduce the risk of future addiction;
  • Expand the use of innovative pain management strategies for procedures/surgeries;
  • Ensure use of evidence-based screening tools;
  • Help patients recover from opioid addiction;
  • Expand access to Medication Assisted Treatment; and
  • Address primary gaps in the care continuum and provide resources for peer support, education and clinical protocols.
• Expanding community outreach programs to educate youth, parents, teachers and coaches on the prevention, recognition and treatment of addiction to opioids and other substances.
• Working together to design a data architecture for the development of opioid prescribing metrics and benchmarks that can be used to measure the impact of initiatives and to proactively monitor prescribing patterns in our institutions.

How to Safely Dispose of your Prescriptions

Old and unused medications that are not properly disposed of can pose a serious threat to you and your loved ones. Click here to learn tips on how to safely dispose of your old and unused prescriptions.