Study: Surgeons continue overprescribing opioids in spite of CDC warnings
Residency Program Insider, July 1, 2019
Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to Residency Program Insider!
According to a recent analysis of Medicare data by Kaiser Health News and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, many surgeons consistently overprescribe opioids for postoperative pain, regardless of CDC warnings and recommendations from academic medical centers. The study looked at almost 350,000 prescriptions written by nearly 20,000 surgeons between 2011 and 2016.
For example, several academic medical centers recommend 0-10 pills for many of the procedures performed by surgeons in the analysis; however, some surgeons wrote prescriptions for more than 100 pills. In instances where academic medical centers recommended up to 30 pills for patients who underwent coronary bypass surgery, the highest-prescribing 1% averaged more than 105 pills. These numbers may indicate that opioid manufacturers are not the only major contributors to the opioid crisis—physicians appear to play a significant role, too.
Patients in the study had not been prescribed opioids in the year before their operation, and research shows that many people become addicted to opioids through a prescription provided after a surgical procedure; in fact, up to 6% of patients prescribed opioids after surgery become dependent and are still taking them six months later.
When contacted by Kaiser Health News, many of the highest-prescribing surgeons in the 2016 databank declined to comment. Other contacted surgeons pointed out that the study does not account for complications that may require higher prescriptions of painkillers. Additionally, they pointed to settings in computer prescribing programs that default to preset amounts when a prescription is written.
Source: Kaiser Health News
Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to Residency Program Insider!
Related Products
-
Residency Program Alert
Residency program managers in all specialties are challenged to effectively manage their programs as accrediting agencies...
-
Residency Program Insider
Residency Program Connection is devoted to bringing residency directors and coordinators expert advice, best practice...
Most Popular
- Articles
-
- Don't forget the three checks in medication administration
- Practice the six rights of medication administration
- Note similarities and differences between HCPCS, CPT® codes
- Q&A: Primary, principal, and secondary diagnoses
- What to include on the incident report
- Code diagnoses and outpatient treatment for PTSD
- OB services: Coding inside and outside of the package
- Differentiate between types of wound debridement
- Complications from immobility by body system
- Know guidelines and subtle differences in code descriptions for laceration repairs
- E-mailed
-
- Does anyone know where the standard is relating to oxygen cylinder storage?
- Note from the instructor: Billing Outpatient Laboratory Services - TOB 131 vs. TOB 141
- Security checkpoint: Will metal detectors really make a big difference
- Means of egress widths in suites
- Know How to Document Missed Visits
- Hospitalists experience 'teen angst,' express caution about treating youths
- Follow these tips to properly report bladder catheter codes
- Does Your Agency Understand How To Respond to an ADR?
- Documentation: Legal risks for nurse managers
- Differentiate between types of wound debridement
- Searched
