By Priyanka Dayal McCluskey | Boston Globe June 17, 2015
When Peter J. Holden addressed fellow executives at the Massachusetts Hospital Association’s annual confab in Chatham last week, he did not grumble about low insurance payments or burdensome government regulations. Holden, the chief executive of Beth Israel Deaconess’s hospital in Plymouth, was squarely focused on another issue: the raging opioid epidemic.
It was, perhaps, an unusual topic to raise in a room full of executives at a luxury resort overlooking the ocean. But Holden, who will serve as board chairman of the hospital association until next June, said the issue commands attention. He wants hospitals to reduce their contribution to the opioid abuse crisis by being more careful about prescribing certain drugs. Addiction often starts with legally prescribed painkillers.
“The health care industry in Massachusetts is part of the problem,” Holden told the Globe. “We write too many prescriptions for pain, and the size of those prescriptions is oftentimes too large.”
As the Globe has previously reported, Holden’s community, Plymouth, has been harder hit than most by the opioid epidemic. Beth Israel Deaconess-Plymouth is taking steps to prevent drug abuse and expand treatment options. And Holden is leading an effort at the Massachusetts Hospital Association, a trade group that represents 79 hospitals, to encourage hospitals to adopt new guidelines on prescribing narcotics.
“I have never seen the prevalence of opiate and heroin addiction that I’m witnessing right now,” said Holden, 61. “I’ve never been in a town or a city or major metropolitan area in my career where it’s been such an obvious problem.”
When Peter J. Holden addressed fellow executives at the Massachusetts Hospital Association’s annual confab in Chatham last week, he did not grumble about low insurance payments or burdensome government regulations. Holden, the chief executive of Beth Israel Deaconess’s hospital in Plymouth, was squarely focused on another issue: the raging opioid epidemic.
It was, perhaps, an unusual topic to raise in a room full of executives at a luxury resort overlooking the ocean. But Holden, who will serve as board chairman of the hospital association until next June, said the issue commands attention. He wants hospitals to reduce their contribution to the opioid abuse crisis by being more careful about prescribing certain drugs. Addiction often starts with legally prescribed painkillers.
“The health care industry in Massachusetts is part of the problem,” Holden told the Globe. “We write too many prescriptions for pain, and the size of those prescriptions is oftentimes too large.”
As the Globe has previously reported, Holden’s community, Plymouth, has been harder hit than most by the opioid epidemic. Beth Israel Deaconess-Plymouth is taking steps to prevent drug abuse and expand treatment options. And Holden is leading an effort at the Massachusetts Hospital Association, a trade group that represents 79 hospitals, to encourage hospitals to adopt new guidelines on prescribing narcotics.
“I have never seen the prevalence of opiate and heroin addiction that I’m witnessing right now,” said Holden, 61. “I’ve never been in a town or a city or major metropolitan area in my career where it’s been such an obvious problem.”
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