Pharmacists Are Essential Drivers of Opioid Stewardship Programs

Opioid stewardship is evolving beyond a simple checklist of restrictions. Because of this emerging change in the management of pain, pharmacists are emerging as one of the most critical forces driving that evolution forward inside hospital walls.

In this interview, Richard Dion, PharmD, pharmacy clinical program manager for clinical surveillance and compliance at Wolters Kluwer Health, breaks down what modern opioid stewardship actually looks like in practice and why its definition continues to shift as health care moves toward a more holistic, management-centered approach for treating pain.

At its core, Dion explains, opioid stewardship is a hospital-wide effort to treat pain effectively while simultaneously reducing the risk of misuse. This is not done by withholding care but by using opioids as judiciously as possible, pairing them with non-opioid alternatives and setting realistic patient expectations around pain control from the very start.

Pharmacists are uniquely positioned to lead this work. Their clinical knowledge of how opioids function and interact makes them natural frontline champions for stewardship programs.

Dion also emphasizes something less obvious: the power of academic detailing. Sharing real-world data with providers, comparing opioid prescribing patterns, flagging outliers, and benchmarking duration of therapy against peers, can drive meaningful change in ways that real-time order interventions alone cannot.

Perhaps most importantly, Dion makes clear that effective stewardship is not about making patients suffer; it is about building systems that protect patients, support providers, and make care safer for everyone involved.

Stay tuned for more from our conversation with Dion.

READ MORE: Pain Management Resource Center