HLS 19RS-1275 ORIGINAL
2019 Regular Session
HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOL UTION NO. 39
BY REPRESENTATIVE WHITE
COMMENDATIONS: Commends Our Lady of the Angels Hospital for its Opioid Sparing
Initiative
1 A CONCURRENT RESOL UTION
2To commend Our Lady of the Angels Hospital in Bogalusa, Louisiana, on the establishment
3 of its Opioid Sparing Initiative, aimed at reducing the number of opioid prescriptions
4 given to patients by prescribing and using opioid pain treatment only in conjunction
5 with other proven drugs and protocols and not, generally, as the primary pain
6 reducer.
7 WHEREAS, a program at Our Lady of the Angels Hospital, dubbed "Opioid
8Sparing", has been successful in reducing patient dependency on opioid pain relievers from
9the moment a surgical procedure ends; patients are closely monitored by healthcare
10professionals, beginning in the surgical recovery areas of the hospital, and the hospital has
11been recognized for its efforts in national trade journals; and
12 WHEREAS, while the entire country has been affected by what is often referred to
13as "the opioid crisis", Louisiana, and particularly Washington Parish, have been
14disproportionately affected with physicians statewide writing one hundred eight opioid
15prescriptions for every one hundred people in the state, a staggering reality; and
16 WHEREAS, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stated in 2016
17that nearly sixty-four thousand drug overdose deaths occurred in the United States and of
18those, the CDC estimates that more than forty-two thousand involved an opioid drug, or
19more than sixty percent of the total; and
20 WHEREAS, the CDC report also found that Washington Parish ranked second in the
21five Louisiana parishes that led the state in opioid deaths; and
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HCR NO. 39
1 WHEREAS, faced with these numbers and the reality that this epidemic strikes
2hardest in poor, rural areas similar to Washington Parish, the Washington Parish Coalition
3on Human Services and Our Lady of the Angels Hospital, supported by the people of the
4parish, established a program with a grant from Louisiana Partnership for Success offered
5by the Florida Parishes Human Services Authority and the Louisiana Department of Health,
6office of behavioral health; and
7 WHEREAS, that grant allowed for the establishment of the opioid sparing effort
8focused on the hospital setting at Our Lady of the Angels, with surgeons, certified registered
9nurse anesthetists, and registered nurses collaborating and involving the entire professional
10staff in using, as a first step in post-surgical pain relief, transversus abdominis plane (TAP)
11and associated blocks which are used in many abdominal procedures and typically provide
12between sixteen and twenty hours of somatic pain relief; and
13 WHEREAS, the TAP blocks are ultrasound-guided, and instruction on this insertion
14method is made available at the hospital for both nurse anesthetist students and the staff of
15certified registered nurse anesthetists, increasing the number of staff who are proficient in
16this procedure; and
17 WHEREAS, post-surgery, the anesthesia department follows up with all patients,
18either in person or by telephone, to ensure that patients have sufficient pain relief, and most
19do not require prescription oral medication of any kind for pain relief following the initial
20block; and
21 WHEREAS, this multidisciplinary approach to an aspect of the practice of medicine
22that can often lead to a dependency on opioid prescription medication has proven to be an
23effective beginning to controlling opioid abuse, particularly when it begins with a
24post-surgical patient; and
25 WHEREAS, Our Lady of the Angels Hospital in Bogalusa and its staff have taken
26a proactive approach to the fight against opioid addiction by looking at the beginning of such
27dependency, which for many is with post-surgical pain, and is making a difference in the
28lives of all their surgical patients by treating their pain without opioid drugs that could prove
29more dangerous to their lives than, perhaps, the risk of the surgery itself; and
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HCR NO. 39
1 WHEREAS, Our Lady of the Angels Hospital and the Washington Parish Coalition
2on Human Services received a certificate recognizing completion of the first year of the
3grant financially enabling this new approach to pain relief; and
4 WHEREAS, situated in a rural area with serious economic hardships, Our Lady of
5the Angels Hospital recognized the threat that opioids pose to the people in its service area
6and has taken a bold and courageous step toward reversing the trend of ever-increasing
7hospitalizations and deaths stemming from the abuse of opioid analgesics.
8 THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of Louisiana does hereby
9commend Our Lady of the Angels Hospital in Bogalusa, Louisiana, on the establishment of
10its Opioid Sparing Initiative, aimed at reducing the number of opioid prescriptions.
11 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to Our
12Lady of the Angels Hospital in Bogalusa, Louisiana.
DIGEST
The digest printed below was prepared by House Legislative Services. It constitutes no part
of the legislative instrument. The keyword, one-liner, abstract, and digest do not constitute
part of the law or proof or indicia of legislative intent. [R.S. 1:13(B) and 24:177(E)]
HCR 39 Original 2019 Regular Session White
Commends Our Lady of the Angels Hospital in Bogalusa on the establishment of its
anti-opiate addiction program.
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