The NQP™ Leadership Consortium identified the nation’s growing opioid crisis as a priority area of focus in mid-2017. The number of opioid prescriptions written each year in the United States has quadrupled in less than two decades, without a resulting change in pain reported by patients. Nearly 2 million people suffer from prescription opioid disorder, and in 2016, more than 46 Americans died every day from a prescription opioid-related overdose. Opioid stewardship is also a key area of focus for NQF’s president and CEO, Shantanu Agrawal, MD, MPhil, who saw the effects of the opioid epidemic firsthand as an emergency department physician.

NQF convened the NQP Opioid Stewardship Action Team in September 2017. Comprised of more than 40 organizations representing clinicians, patient partners, federal agencies, and other key stakeholders, the NQP Opioid Stewardship Action Team met in-person and by-web to identify strategies and tactics to help clinicians better manage patients' pain while reducing the risk of opioid addiction. To hear more from members of the NQP Opioid Stewardship Action Team, listen to the Strategies for Strengthening Opioid Stewardship: A Conversation with the NQP Opioid Stewardship Action Team webinar.

NQF developed the NQP Playbook™: Opioid Stewardship in March 2018 with input from the NQP Opioid Stewardship Action Team. The NQP Playbook provides concrete strategies and implementation examples for healthcare organizations and clinicians committed to effective pain management and opioid stewardship. NQP modeled the NQP Playbook: Opioid Stewardship after other successful efforts to tackle national healthcare priorities, including the NQP™ Playbook: Antibiotic Stewardship in Acute Care, which has become an essential resource to help physicians, pharmacists, and healthcare organizations implement strategies to promote the appropriate and safe use of antibiotics. Download the NQP Playbook: Opioid Stewardship and the Opioid Stewardship Fact Sheet on the NQF Store.

Participate and Stay Connected

Sign up for project alerts for news and announcements on the NQP's opioid stewardship initiatives to stay connected. If you are interested in pursuing a particular idea for work that builds upon the NQP Playbook: Opioid Stewardship or the work of the NQP Opioid Stewardship Action Team, please contact National Quality Partners.

NQP expresses sincere appreciation to the following individuals and organizations for their commitment to addressing the national opioid epidemic to make care safer and more effective for everyone: