SHPA member Kenny Lee FANZCAP (PainMgmt, Steward) recognised for work in reducing opioid use

Image credit: PH News

Congratulations to SHPA member Kenny Lee FANZCAP (PainMgmt, Steward) on a stellar achievement!

Sydney cancer care provider Chris O'Brien Lifehouse has won the ‘Clinical Excellence: Quality of Care and Patient Outcomes’ category at the Australian Private Hospitals Association’s 2024 APHA Awards for Excellence, for their innovative opioid stewardship program. Kenny (pictured, middle) is opioid stewardship pharmacist on the program's team.

Introduced in 2020, the program aims to reduce unnecessary or inappropriate opioid prescribing, incorporating a multidisciplinary team whose approach focuses on patient-centred prescribing.

Kenny, who is a member of SHPA's Pain Management Leadership Committee and co-author of our recently published Standard of Practice in Pain Management for Pharmacy Services, said: 'Our teams are educated on pain management and appropriate opioid use. Plus, they’re trained to see the signs of opioid dependency.'

In only a few years of operation, there has been a 21 percent reduction in opioid use for surgical discharge patients - despite the number of surgeries almost doubling!

And, importantly, Kenny says: 'Our patients are part of the decision-making process.'

Congratulations to Kenny and team for their wonderful work.

Read more in the Australian Private Hospitals Association (APHA)'s PH News article.