Team-based approaches to perioperative opioid management may go a long way towards cutting down on opioid use for surgical patients, a study published in January in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons found.
The study followed the implementation of a comprehensive opioid stewardship program, which included multimedia patient- and staff-directed educational materials, prescribing badges, four electronic medical record modifications and a dashboard that tracked and analyzed opioid prescribing.
The study analyzed the prospective post-implementation data with beeline discharge prescribing habits from 2019. A total of 6,619 so-called “opioid naive” adults undergoing one out of 15 elective procedures across a variety of specialties were included in the study.
Overall, median prescription size decreased by 67%, and 24,212 pills were saved as a result of the program. A reduction in median discharge of opioid prescription was achieved in 14 out of 15 procedures, and the median postintervention prescription quantity was zero for 10 out of 15 procedures.
After risk adjustment, patients who enrolled in the program post-intervention received eight fewer oxycodone pills than their counterparts.
