HCA Healthcare surpasses 100,000 pounds of collected medication

Today, HCA Healthcare is proud to announce that we collected 19,846 pounds, approximately 13.6 million doses, of unused or expired medications during our seventh annual “Crush the Crisis” national prescription drug take back day. In total, we have now collected more than 108,500 pounds of medication since launching “Crush the Crisis” as an enterprise initiative in 2019.HCA Healthcare facilities across all 15 of the Company’s U.S. divisions partnered with local law enforcement to help community members safely and anonymously dispose of unused or expired medication. The events were held in alignment with the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) National Prescription Drug Take Back Day, which collected 571,054 pounds of medication.

HCA Healthcare facilities that helped collect the largest amount of medication during this year’s event include:

• HCA HealthONE Aurora in Aurora, Colorado with 1,768 pounds
• Medical City McKinney in McKinney, Texas with 644 pounds
• Rapides Regional Medical Center in Alexandria, Louisiana with 502 pounds
• Methodist Hospital | Northeast in Live Oak, Texas with 458 pounds
• CJW Medical Center in Richmond, Virginia with 453 pounds

Drawing on data from its approximately 44 million annual patient encounters, HCA Healthcare uses the science of “big data” to help reduce prescription drug misuse and transform pain management, with initiatives in surgical, emergency and other care settings, including:

• Enhanced Surgical Recovery (ESR): a multi-modal approach to pain management using pre-, intra- and post-operative interventions to optimize outcomes. HCA Healthcare’s ESR programs have demonstrated significant improvements in surgical recovery and patient satisfaction, including decreases in opioid usage.
• Electronic Prescribing of Controlled Substances (EPCS): aims to stem increasing rates of opioid-related addiction, misuse, diversion and death by making it more difficult for medication-seekers to doctor-shop and alter prescriptions. Physicians have access to aggregated electronic health records, providing data that will allow them to prescribe opioids judiciously.

HCA Healthcare also proudly collaborates with and provides clinical insight to the National Academy of Medicine’s (NAM) Action Collaborative on Combatting Substance Use and Opioid Crises.