Improving Care for Hospitalized, Opioid-Dependent Patients: A Promising Start

In the United States, an estimated 2 million people are addicted to heroin or opioid analgesics, 80% of whom are not in treatment.¹ Rates of addiction have increased during the past 20 years, following increased misuse of prescription opioid analgesics, resulting in large increases in opioid-related emergency department visits, hospitalizations, and overdose deaths.²