SLS 19RS-235 ORIGINAL
2019 Regular Session
SENATE CONCURRENT RESOL UTION NO. 35
BY SENATOR MIZELL
COMMENDATIONS. Commends Our Lady of the Angels Hospital for its Opioid Sparing
Initiative.
1 A CONCURRENT RESOL UTION
2 To 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, the program at Our Lady of the Angels Hospital, dubbed "Opioid
8 Sparing", has been successful in reducing patient dependency on opioid pain relievers from
9 the moment a surgical procedure ends and is closely monitored by healthcare professionals,
10 beginning in the surgical recovery areas of the hospital and has been recognized for its
11 efforts in national trade journals; and
12 WHEREAS, while the entire country has been affected by what is often referred to
13 as "the opioid crisis", Louisiana, and particularly Washington Parish, have been
14 disproportionately affected with physicians statewide writing one hundred and eight opioid
15 prescriptions for every one hundred people in the state, a staggering reality; and
16 WHEREAS, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stated in 2016
17 that nearly sixty-four thousand drug overdose deaths occurred in the United States and of
18 those, the CDC estimates that over forty-two thousand involved an opioid drug, or more than
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1 sixty percent of the total; and
2 WHEREAS, the CDC report also found that Washington Parish ranked second in the
3 five Louisiana parishes that led the state in opioid deaths; and
4 WHEREAS, faced with these numbers and the reality that this epidemic strikes
5 hardest in poor, rural areas similar to their parish, the Washington Parish Coalition on
6 Human Services and Our Lady of the Angels Hospital, supported by the people of the parish,
7 established a program with a grant from Louisiana Partnership for Success offered by the
8 Florida Parishes Human Services Authority and the Louisiana Department of Health, Office
9 of Behavioral Health; and
10 WHEREAS, that grant allowed for the establishment of the opioid sparing effort
11 focused on the hospital setting at Our Lady of the Angels, with surgeons, certified registered
12 nurse anesthetists, and registered nurses collaborating and involving the entire professional
13 staff in using, as a first step in post-surgical pain relief, transversus abdominis plane (TAP)
14 and associated blocks which are used in many abdominal procedures and, typically, provide
15 between sixteen and twenty hours of somatic pain relief; and
16 WHEREAS, the TAP blocks are ultra-sound guided and instruction in this insertion
17 method are made available at the hospital for both nurse anesthetist students and the staff of
18 certified registered nurse anesthetists, increasing the number of staff who are proficient in
19 this procedure; and
20 WHEREAS, post-surgery, the anesthesia department follows up with all patients,
21 either in person or by telephone, to ensure that the patient has sufficient pain relief and, most
22 do not require any prescription oral medication of any kind for pain relief following the
23 initial block; and
24 WHEREAS, this multi-disciplinary approach to an aspect of the practice of medicine
25 that can often lead to a dependency on opioid prescription medication has proven to be an
26 effective beginning to controlling opioid abuse, particularly when it begins with a post-
27 surgical patient; and
28 WHEREAS, Our Lady of the Angels Hospital in Bogalusa and its staff have taken
29 a pro-active approach to the fight against opioid addiction, by looking at the beginning of
30 such dependency, which, for many is with post-surgical pain, and is making a difference in
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1 the lives of all their surgical patients, by treating their pain, not with opioid drugs that could
2 prove more dangerous to their lives than, perhaps, the risk of the surgery itself; and
3 WHEREAS, Our Lady of the Angels Hospital and the Washington Parish Coalition
4 on Human Services received a certificate recognizing completion of the first year of the
5 grant financially enabling this new approach to pain relief; and
6 WHEREAS, being situated in a rural area with serious economic hardships, Our
7 Lady of the Angels Hospital recognized the threat that opioids pose to the people in their
8 service area and have taken a bold and courageous step toward reversing the trend of ever-
9 increasing hospitalizations and deaths stemming from the abuse of opioid analgesics.
10 THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of Louisiana does hereby
11 commend Our Lady of the Angels Hospital in Bogalusa, Louisiana, on the establishment of
12 its Opioid Sparing Initiative, aimed at reducing the number of opioid prescriptions.
13 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to Our
14 Lady of the Angels Hospital in Bogalusa, Louisiana.
The original instrument and the following digest, which constitutes no part
of the legislative instrument, were prepared by Mary Dozier O'Brien.
DIGEST
SCR 35 Original 2019 Regular Session Mizell
Commends Our Lady of the Angels Hospital in Bogalusa on the establishment of their anti-
opiate addiction program.
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