Press Release:

CARTERSVILLE, GA; November 9, 2020 – Cartersville Medical Center announced that it exceeded last year’s total and collected 47 pounds of medications during its “Crush the Crisis” opioid take back day on October 24, 2020 to help combat the nation’s opioid crisis. Several community members participated in the event by dropping off unused and expired prescription medications.

 

“We were happy to host ‘Crush the Crisis’ again this year at Cartersville Medical Center,” said Mark Senger, chief medical officer. “We collected 47 pounds of unused or expired prescription medications, exceeding combined totals from the event the past two years. It’s reassuring to know that those medications have been collected for safe disposal and are no longer in homes. We thank and appreciate Bartow-Cartersville Drug Task Force for partnering with us and helping educate our community about the serious threat opioid misuse.”

 

As an affiliate of HCA Healthcare, Cartersville Medical Center is part of a learning health system that uses data from approximately 35 million annual patient encounters to help continuously improve care. The organization uses the science of “big data” to reduce opioid 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 and, importantly, up to a 50.8% decrease in opioid use in data collected from 124,000 major abdominal, joint, gynecologic oncology, spinal and bariatric surgeries from January 2018 – August 2020.

 

  • ALTernatives to Opioids in the Emergency Room (ALTO in the ER): a multi-modal approach to acute pain management, which focuses on alternative medication to hit various pain receptors as a first line treatment for common painful conditions. Initial results of ALTO pilot programs demonstrate a 36% reduction in opioid administrations.

 

  • 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 record (EHR) providing data that will allow them to prescribe opioids judiciously.

 

Approximately 95 HCA Healthcare facilities hosted a “Crush the Crisis” opioid take back day in their communities on October 24, collecting more than 10,000 pounds of unused or expired medications and breaking last year’s record.

 

About Cartersville Medical Center

Cartersville Medical Center is a 119-bed acute care hospital, Chest Pain Center, Certified Primary Stroke Center, Level III Trauma Center, Certified Total Joint program and Gold Seal Inpatient Diabetes program facility accredited by the Joint Commission.  The Breast Imaging Center at The Women’s Center provides mammography services that are gold seal accredited by the American College of Radiology.  The Advanced Wound Healing Center provides specialized treatment for chronic or non-healing wounds.  The Hope Center, a regional, Commission on Cancer approved cancer treatment facility, is conveniently located on the hospital campus and provides over 4,000 treatments with over 300 new patients per year from a ten county region. For medical needs that do not require a visit to the emergency department, Cartersville Urgent Care offers a convenient location close to home with walk-in care for most minor injuries and illnesses along with preventative care and testing.

 

For more information about programs and services offered at Cartersville Medical Center or The Hope Center, call MedLine at (800) 242-5662 or visit www.cartersvillemedical.com.