Spokane doctor and pharmacist named to opioid task force

A Spokane doctor and a pharmacist have been named to a Washington task force that will explore solutions to the state’s growing opioid epidemic.

Dr. Tom Schaaf, a family physician with Providence Medical Group and Sean Dobbin, Sacred Heart Medical Center’s pharmacy director, will be part of the task force looking at ways that doctors and hospitals can help prevent opioid addiction and overdose.

The task force was convened by the Washington State Medical Association and the Washington State Hospital Association. It will work on guidelines for appropriate prescriptions for controlling pain and legislative proposals and policy around opioids.

Drug overdoses – most of them involving opioids – recently surpassed car crashes as the leading cause of accidental death. About 600 people die each year in Washington from overdosing on prescription and illegally obtained opioids.