Survey: 98% of executives agree that drug diversion occurs in hospitals

According to a Sept. 12 news release, Invistics, acquired by Wolters Kluwer Health earlier this year, published a survey entitled, “The State of Drug Diversion Report.” The survey found that 98% of healthcare executives agree that drug diversion occurs in hospitals, yet 79% believe that most drug diversion goes undetected.

The news release stated, “The International Health Facility Diversion Association estimates that at least 37,000 diversion incidents occur in U.S. facilities each year, and this number is likely underreported.  According to the Wolters Kluwer Invistics survey, ‘The State of Drug Diversion 2023 Report,’ only 40% of executives are very confident in the efficacy of their drug diversion detection programs, with a majority (67%) of executives planning to strengthen their drug diversion efforts in 2023.”

Key highlights from the survey include:

• 71% of respondents reported that their team spends eight or more hours on each drug diversion investigation
• 69% of respondents pointed to the increased presence of floating staff or contract workers as the main factor that made drug diversion detection more challenging
• Since the first survey in 2019, hospitals that report using machine learning to detect patterns of diversion and automatically flag potential cases have nearly doubled (29% to 56%)
• More than half of executives who use AI tools (53%) reporting they are very confident in the efficacy of their diversion detection efforts

Karen Kobelski, vice president and general manager of Clinical Surveillance Compliance & Data Solutions, Wolters Kluwer, Health was quoted in the news release. She said, “With staff shortages and use of contract workers at an all-time high, hospitals may see inconsistency in their drug diversion detection efforts. Given the risks to patient safety and clinical teams, as well as the potential reputational and financial impact on the hospital itself, hospital leadership should consider how sophisticated technology can keep these programs running smoothly. As one of our respondents commented, ‘If you do not have any drug diversion, then you are not looking hard enough.’”

Wolters Kluwer has the news release.