The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists has released updated guidelines on preventing controlled substances diversion in healthcare settings. The recommendations can be tailored to various sectors, including long-term care.
Diversion of controlled substances in healthcare is common, although rarely spoken of openly, the guidelines authors say. Up to 15% of healthcare workers are estimated to misuse alcohol or drugs at some point in their careers, a figure similar to that in the general population.
Diversion may include the personal use or sale of controlled drugs. The consequences to patients include inadequate pain relief, inaccurate medical documentation and exposure to infectious disease through contaminated needles and drugs. Meanwhile, organizations may experience related regulatory and legal risk, such as billing fraud and damages liability.
The problem can also contribute to decreased community confidence in the healthcare system, say the panel of U.S. pharmacists who finalized the ASHP Guidelines on Preventing Diversion of Controlled Substance.
The new recommendations are designed to help healthcare organizations develop a framework for integrating strategies into a comprehensive controlled substance diversion prevention program.
Organizations must “routinely review process compliance and effectiveness, strengthen controls, and seek to proactively prevent or detect diversion and how to best address the problem of impaired healthcare workers,” according to the authors.
In addition, engaged leadership and interprofessional collaboration can help, by fostering a culture of awareness and accountability, they wrote. The aim is to “support a culture of safety for patients and healthcare workers,” they said.
“Ultimately, each organization is responsible for developing a [program] that complies with applicable federal and state laws and regulations,” the authors added. “But also one that applies technology and diligent surveillance to routinely review process compliance and effectiveness, strengthen controls and seek to proactively prevent or detect diversion.”
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