HCA Healthcare collects record-breaking 21,137 pounds of medication during sixth annual “Crush the Crisis”

Today, we are proud to announce that HCA Healthcare collected 21,137 pounds of unused or expired medications during our sixth annual “Crush the Crisis” national prescription drug take back day. This surpasses last year’s totals and is the most our organization has ever collected during the annual event. In total, HCA Healthcare has now collected more than 88,600 pounds of medication since launching “Crush the Crisis” as an enterprise initiative in 2019.

HCA Healthcare facilities across the country partnered with local law enforcement to help communities safely and anonymously dispose of unused or expired medication. An estimated 14.5 million doses of medication were collected at more than 125 collection sites. HCA Healthcare’s “Crush the Crisis” events were held in alignment with the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) National Prescription Drug Take Back Day, which collected 629,953 pounds of medication.

The HCA Healthcare facilities that helped collect the greatest amount of medication during the event this year include:

• CJW Medical Center in Richmond, Virginia collected 992 pounds
• HCA HealthONE Aurora in Aurora, Colorado collected 861 pounds
• HCA HealthONE Sky Ridge in Lone Tree, Colorado collected 842 pounds
• Medical City McKinney in McKinney, Texas collected 694 pounds
• HCA HealthONE Mountain Ridge in Thornton, Colorado collected 534 pounds

HCA Healthcare uses data from approximately 43 million annual patient encounters to help continuously improve care. The organization uses the science of “big data” to help 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 decreases in opioid usage.
• Electronic Prescribing of Controlled Substances (EPCS): aims to stem increasing rates of opioid-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 to help them prescribe opioids judiciously.