Feedback for surgeons curbs excess opioid prescription scripts
A new study from Penn Medicine shows providing tailored data improves prescribing and maintains patient comfort.
2 min. read
Tailored feedback to surgeons dramatically cuts excessive opioid prescriptions for common surgeries, aligning them with evidence-based guidelines without affecting patient pain control. This approach offers a promising strategy to combat the opioid crisis by aligning prescribing practices with evidence-based guidelines, addressing the critical issue of overprescribing, where excessive opioid prescriptions can lead to harmful side effects and can lead to dependence in some patients or diversion of unused pills. The findings, by researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine, are published in JAMA Surgery.
The study leveraged behavioral science and patient-reported data to nudge surgeons and supporting nurse practitioners and physician assistants to compare their prescribing practices with those of colleagues prescribing after similar procedures throughout their health system, offering a scalable model that could transform pain management while prioritizing patient safety and comfort.
“This work moves us closer to personalized pain management,” says M. Kit Delgado, director of the Nudge Unit, co-chair of the Penn Medicine Opioid Task Force, and an associate professor of emergency medicine. “By right sizing opioid prescriptions based on patient needs by procedure, we’re lowering the risk of harms while ensuring patients get the care they need.”
“What’s powerful about this approach is that it gives surgeons actionable data they can control,” says Anish Agarwal,chief wellness officer in the Department of Emergency Medicine and deputy director of the Center for Insights to Outcomes. “We saw every group improve, which was surprising and exciting.”
The trial provides surgical prescribers with data comparing their opioid prescribing to peer averages, and Penn Medicine’s own patient-informed guidelines. The study also provides data on how many pills patients take on average after a given procedure and how well they did with managing their pain if they received a prescription within the guideline recommended amount. Conducted across multiple high-volume surgical divisions, the study shows that when surgeons had this data, there is a substantial increase in guideline adherence, and less overprescribing.
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