The opioid discussion One last thing #8212 We asked each of our experts for one takeaway on how opioids are impacting the workplace and the state

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Morris Anesthesia Group

Dr. Andrew Sim

Morris Anesthesia Group

I think making sure your employee benefits provider is really focused on safe prescribing guidelines for acute pain and chronic pain is big. And involving pain management early on in the algorithm for treating acute and chronic pain can potentially help curb the use of opioids early on and potentially get patients to use less opioids and go to other resources to get off opioids.

John Koufus

New Jersey Reentry Corp.

The obligation is to your business first. The employees are important and a critical component of it, but you have to balance that with a safe and effective work environment for all. And that becomes a very hard tension for businesses. The folks who often succumb to these issues are your friends who have been vital parts to your growth, but, at the end of the day, the policies you craft have to be in the best interest of the corporation first, that then work for the addicted person. And I say that (as someone) who has been through it.

It’s an operational reality. To the extent that you can become educated and understand the pitfalls and the signs and connect people to treatment, I think you’re going to have your at-risk employees recover faster, become more productive and, candidly, (it) will allow you to remember why they came in the first place before they had their issues.

Dr. Joseph N. Ranieri

Seabrook House

The major thing is long-term recovery solutions. We thought we had the short-term down pat, only to realize that relapse occurs like in any other disease. We call it exacerbations. Long-term solutions are key. If we can funnel long-term solutions into recovery, I’m sure that’s going to be countless savings for dollars for the corporation and we’ll save countless lives.

Dr. Mark Rosenberg

St. Joseph’s Healthcare System

We need education not only for ourselves but for our employees, our supervisors, our benefits team, our C-suite executive team. This is a big deal and it’s going to affect all of us. We need to work with the providers your employers are going to go to (to make sure they) use alternatives first, not just jump into opioids. We need to partner with insurance companies and come up with a strategy.