Evidence status: DOCUMENTED NEW JERSEY HEALTH-SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION, WITH DATE BOUNDARIES. Hunterdon Medical Center’s public community-benefit records document a system-level controlled-substance-agreement program in primary care. The opioid-specific metric is documented through the 2019-2022 cycle; later public reporting changed the tracked metric.

2019-2022 chronic-opioid agreement program

Hunterdon’s 2022 public Schedule H identified a goal of increasing the percentage of adult primary-care patients with chronic opioid prescriptions who had a signed Controlled Substance Agreement in the electronic health record to 92%.

For that metric, Hunterdon defined the chronic-opioid population as patients with three or more opioid prescriptions of more than 20 pills each within the prior 12 months. The health system also tracked New Jersey Prescription Monitoring Program use in the electronic record.

What the record shows

  • Controlled-substance agreements were not merely theoretical documents; Hunterdon measured their presence in the EHR as a quality target.
  • The system paired agreement tracking with monitoring of New Jersey PMP use.
  • Public reporting describes physician review of opioid dangers, alternatives to opioids, and proper disposal.
  • The program used practice-level dashboards and registries to identify gaps in documentation.

Do not overstate current status

Hunterdon’s 2023 Schedule H shows that the 2023-2025 substance-misuse quality cycle shifted the controlled-substance-agreement metric to stimulant prescribing rather than chronic opioids. The older opioid metric therefore remains strong historical evidence of institutional implementation, but this page does not claim that the exact opioid metric remained Hunterdon’s active 2026 quality measure.

Why this belongs in the New Jersey record

New Jersey law mandates pain management agreements in covered chronic-pain opioid treatment. Hunterdon’s records show how one major New Jersey health system operationalized controlled-substance agreements inside primary-care electronic records and quality measurement.

Sources

Reviewed: October 4, 2026.

Evidence boundary: This is an institutional implementation record, not a recovered patient contract. The public evidence proves the agreement program and its metrics, not the exact wording of Hunterdon’s patient form.