To Bolster Opioid Fight, HSTpathways Hosts Focus Group with Top Ambulatory Surgery Center Industry Leaders and Former White House Deputy Director of Domestic Policy Council Lance Leggitt

Steps to Combatting the Country’s Opioid Crisis Identified: Risk
Assessments, Prevention Protocols, Outcome Reporting, and Education

SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/ASC?src=hash” target=”_blank”gt;#ASClt;/agt;–HSTpathways,
the leading provider of cloud-based, ambulatory surgery center (ASC)
management software, hosted a focus group on May 16 for top ASC industry
leaders and former White House Deputy Director of Domestic Policy Lance
Leggitt to discuss steps the ASC industry can take to combat the
country’s opioid crisis as it related to post-surgical opioid
dependency. Leaders weighed in on how ASCs can make an impact by using
proactive risk scoring, prevention, education, and reporting on outcomes
related to the use of opioids in outpatient surgeries. HST’s focus
group, titled “Addressing the Opioid Crisis in ASCs,” supports the
Ambulatory Surgery Center Association’s comprehensive solution to
address the abuse and misuse of opioids. It took place during the 2019
Ambulatory Surgery Center Association’s Annual Conference held in
Nashville, TN.

From 1999 to 2017, more
than 700,000 Americans have died from drug overdoses, and 68% of
70,200 deaths in 2017 involved an opioid. On average, 130 Americans die
every day from an opioid overdose.¹

“Opioids cause more deaths than gun violence, more deaths than car
accidents, more deaths than breast cancer and HIV,” said Leggitt. “It
knows no geographic, socioeconomic or age boundaries – it hits
everybody. If you go back into the ’60s and you look at people who were
using heroin, 80% of heroin users basically started because they were
doing illegal drugs. Fast-forward to 2000, and 80% of the people
addicted to opioids started because of prescription drugs, not illegal
drugs. It will take a collaborative effort on the part of all
stakeholders to turn the tide of this public health emergency. The ASC
industry should be commended for joining the fight and engaging on this
issue.”

“The opioid crisis is the largest public health crisis in decades, and
the ASC industry wants to be vigilant to better tailor our prevention
efforts by best identifying patients predisposed to opioid addiction,”
said Tom Hui, CEO of HST. “We are pleased to receive Lance Leggitt’s
input, as he was instrumental in providing insight into the legislative
efforts ongoing to fight the opioid epidemic.”

“Two-thirds of all surgeries are done in an outpatient setting today,
and if 12% of all soft tissue and orthopedic cases are coming out as
newly addicted, that’s a huge number²,” said Tara
Vail, COO of HST. “The ASC industry can positively impact millions
of lives by reducing that number; and not just for the addicted, but for
their families and the communities around them. It is really important
as a surgery industry that we seriously look at this issue.”

HST works with ASCs of all sizes, with more than 750 clients, including
50 multi-facility corporate enterprises, ASC management companies, and
hundreds of free-standing ambulatory surgery centers and ASC-hospital
joint ventures.

About HSTpathways

HSTpathways
is a top-ranked, cloud-based Ambulatory Surgery Center software company
dedicated to serving the ASC industry. HST was named KLAS Category
Leader for Ambulatory Surgical Center Solutions in the “2018
Best in KLAS: Software & Services ” report. Clients include more
than 750 organizations such as freestanding ambulatory surgery centers
and ASC-hospital joint ventures, as well as 50 multi-facility corporate
enterprises. HST provides the most trusted enterprise software
management solution available to the ASC industry. HST offers
specialized software solutions to help ASC organizations achieve
efficiencies with surgical scheduling, supply chain management, EHR
clinical workflows, medical coding, insurance and patient billing, and
accounts receivable collections. For more information, visit www.HSTpathways.com.

¹ Wide-ranging online data for epidemiologic research
(WONDER). Atlanta, GA: CDC, National Center for Health Statistics; 2017.
Available at http://wonder.cdc.gov.

² Exposing
a Silent Gateway to Persistent Opioid Use, A Choices Matter Status
Report

Contacts

Kelly Motley
615.483.0365
Kelly.Motley@HSTpathways.com