An Epidemic, A Crisis, A State of Emergency: The ALTO Response

Over and over, we hear that there is an opiod epidemic, an opiod crisis and/or an opiod state of emergency.  News reports seem quick to blame providers for this.  However, they offer few reports about solutions to controlling the very real pain that patients experience without being prescribed highly-addictive opiates.

The Emergency Department at St. Joseph's University Medical Center, Paterson, NJ -- the busiest Emergency Department in the State of New Jersey -- is the first in the United States to pilot the "Alternatives to Opiates" (ALTO) program to give providers options they can use to effectively alleviate pain without resorting to highly addictive medication. 

From the website:  "Launched in January 2016 in the Emergency Department at St. Joseph's University Medical Center, the Alternatives to Opiates (ALTO) program utilizes protocols that primarily target five common conditions:  renal colic, sciatica, headaches, musculoskeletal pain and extremity fractures. . . . Initial results of the St. Joseph's ALTO program are very promising. Up to 75% of patients have achieved adequate pain relief with alternative therapies and there has been a decrease in opiod use by 50% since the inception of the program."

Click here for more information about this program.  Congratulations to St. Joseph's Health (a sponsored work of the Sisters of Charity of St. Elizabeth, Convent Station, NJ) for its innovative response to this crisis.  May God bless your mission to "sustain and improve both individual and community health, with a special concern for those who are poor, vulnerable and underserved."