Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula receives “Superior Performance” in Opioid Care Honor Roll program
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monterey, Calif. — Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula received a “Superior Performance” designation, the highest award, in Cal Hospital Compare’s Opioid Care Honor Roll program. Cal Hospital Compare, a nonprofit organization providing Californians with objective performance ratings for more than a decade, recognizes this program with the goal to increase access to addiction treatment for hospitalized patients and reduce opioid-related deaths.
According to Cal Hospital Compare, in 2019, nearly 50,000 people in the United States died from opioid-involved overdoses. The misuse of and addiction to opioids—including prescription pain relievers, heroin, and synthetic opioids such as fentanyl—is a serious national crisis that affects public health as well as social and economic welfare. In California alone, there were more than 5,502 opioid overdose deaths in 2020, including more than 3,945 deaths from fentanyl. Fentanyl-related overdose deaths has been on the rise. In Monterey County, fentanyl deaths from 2019 to 2021 increased by more than 8 times, with a majority of the deaths in 2020 being those who were 30 years and under.
“With the introduction of counterfeit pills laced with fentanyl, we have seen a large increase in opioid overdoses and deaths in our county,” says Reb Close, Community Hospital emergency physician and co-founder of the Monterey County Prescribe Safe Initiative. “We are working within the hospital and with more than 30 community partners in the county to educate our community about the dangers of opioids including fentanyl.”
Hospitals achieving “Superior Performance” have implemented advanced, innovative opioid stewardship strategies across multiple service lines, consistently achieving the highest level of performance. In addition, these hospitals are actively measuring and monitoring performance for the purpose of continued quality improvement. Participating hospitals answered eight questions across four key domains of care including safe and effective opioid use, identifying and treating patients with OUD, overdose prevention, and applying cross-cutting opioid management best practices.
Community Hospital has also received honor roll recognition for its work in maternity care in 2021. To make the honor roll, hospitals must meet or surpass the statewide target aimed at reducing births via C-section in first-time mothers with low-risk pregnancies.
To learn about Cal Hospital Compare award programs, visit www.calhospitalcompare.org/programs.
