Scripps Earns Top Marks on Cal Hospital Compare Honor Rolls

CHC named all four of Scripps Health's hospitals to the sustained superior performance tier of this year's Opioid Care Honor Roll. This is the highest possible category, available only to hospitals that have maintained a superior ranking for at least two consecutive years. Scripps' four hospitals - Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla, Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas, Scripps Green Hospital and Scripps Mercy Hospital (San Diego and Chula Vista campuses) - are the only local health care facilities named to the sustained superior performance tier in 2024.

CHC invited all 347 California adult, acute-care hospitals to submit self-assessments to be considered for this year's honor roll, with 157 of those hospitals participating. Self-assessments covered questions about four domains of care: safe and effective opioid use; identifying and treating patients with opioid use disorder; harm reduction strategies; and applying opioid management best practices that influence the success of the first three domains.

For this year's Opioid Care Honor Roll, CHC named 30 California hospitals to the sustained superior performance tier; 25 to the superior performance tier; and 39 to the excellent progress tier. CHC recognized the remaining hospitals for performance improvement and program participation.

CHC recognized Scripps for taking a variety of approaches to address overuse of opioids among its hospital patients. In recent years, Scripps has decreased the number of high-dose opioids prescribed at discharge and reduced the number of opioid prescriptions that exceed seven days. It also has achieved strong usage of alternative pain management options, such as non-opioid medications, aromatherapy and music therapy.

Additionally, Scripps expanded its medication-assisted therapy programs at its hospital emergency departments, where physicians can administer medications such as buprenorphine as a bridge for patients with opioid use disorder until they can receive further care in the community. Scripps has experienced an increase in buprenorphine prescriptions in its EDs and a rise in prescriptions written for naloxone, which is used to reverse opioid overdoses.

Scripps also has added fentanyl testing to its standard multi-drug test panel administered to patients in its emergency departments. Such screening provides vital information to doctors and patients, who may not otherwise be aware an ingested drug contained fentanyl. This knowledge can lead to lifestyle changes, addiction treatment or a prescription for naloxone.