News Releases

Opioid ED Joins VA Meeting with David Shulkin, Others from Trump Administration

On Sept. 14, Allisyn Leppla, executive director of the Northeast Ohio Hospital Opioid Consortium, participated in a roundtable discussion at the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center on the region’s opioid epidemic with Secretary of Veterans Affairs Dr. David Shulkin.

The meeting, held via President Trump’s opioid commission, was attended by several members of the Trump administration, as well as lawmakers and clinical representatives from the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center.

Roundtable participants included:

• Dr. David Shulkin, Secretary of Veterans Affairs
• Chris Christie, Governor of New Jersey
• Kellyanne Conway, Counselor to the President
• Patrick Kennedy, former congressman 
• Susan Fuehrer, director, VA Medical Center
• Allisyn Leppla, executive director, The Northeast Ohio Hospital Opioid Consortium
• Senior Leadership, Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center

As the President’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis moves to identify ways to lower the rate of overdoses and deaths across the nation, VA hospitals across the country are often used as an example of how to best dispense opioids and manage the patient population using them. In fact, as Secretary David Shulkin highlighted, The VA’s Opioid Management Continuum has seen a 25 percent reduction in the amount of opioids dispensed since 2011. In addition to prescribing practices, the roundtable discussed ways to address pain management through alternative paths beyond medication. The roundtable also considered ways to ensure that Medication-Assisted Treatment, or MAT, becomes more patient-centric and evaluation based. 

The newly formed Northeast Ohio Hospital Opioid Consortium will continue to work with area hospitals to address the high addiction, morbidity and mortality rates across the region and complement the work at Louis Stokes VA Medical Center. For questions regarding the roundtable with Secretary David Shulkin or the Northeast Ohio Hospital Opioid Consortium, please contact us.