Houston, TX – HCA Healthcare Gulf Coast Division today announced that it collected nearly 1,150 pounds of medications during HCA Healthcare’s fifth annual “DEA Take Back Day” on Oct. 28, 2023. The following hospitals within HCA Healthcare Gulf Coast Division participated in the DEA Take Back Day:
- The Woman’s Hospital of Texas- Collected 119 pounds
- HCA Houston Healthcare Southeast- Collected 200 pounds
- HCA Houston Healthcare Tomball- Collected 361.80 pounds
- Corpus Christi Medical Center Doctors Regional- Collected 467.50 pounds
Joining forces with local law enforcement, The Woman’s Hospital of Texas, HCA Houston Healthcare Southeast, HCA Houston Healthcare Tomball and Corpus Christi Medical Center Doctors Regional invited community members to safely and anonymously dispose of their unused and expired medications for proper disposal.
DEA’s National Prescription Drug Take Back Day reflects DEA’s commitment to Americans’ safety and health, encouraging the public to remove unneeded medications from their homes as a measure of preventing medication misuse and opioid addiction from ever starting.
HCA Healthcare uses data from approximately 37 million annual patient encounters to help continuously improve care. Part of HCA Healthcare, HCA Healthcare Gulf Coast Division uses the science of “big data” to 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 an up to 44% decrease in opioid usage for some surgeries.
- Electronic Prescribing of Controlled Substances (EPCS): aims to stem increasing rates of prescription pain reliever-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.
