Evidence map›Paper›PMID 32938775›Full record

ArticleBMJ quality & safety2021

Assessment of a quality improvement intervention to decrease opioid prescribing in a regional health system.

Craig S Brown, Joceline V Vu, Ryan A Howard, Vidhya Gunaseelan, Chad M Brummett, Jennifer Waljee, Michael Englesbe

Registry-linked trialAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in BMJ quality & safety, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT04805229 (Using Difference-in-Differences to Evaluate the Effect of a Statewide Quality Improvement Program on New Persistent Opioid Use After Surgery), which is not on this map. Cited by 15 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
15citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

NCT04805229 completednot on this map

Using Difference-in-Differences to Evaluate the Effect of a Statewide Quality Improvement Program on New Persistent Opioid Use After Surgery

TypeobservationalSponsorUniversity of MichiganRan2013 to 2019Enrolled30,000ConditionsOpioid UseArmsRetrospective analysis of opioid use after surgery
3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

15 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
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  5. Impact of COVID-19 on Opioid Prescribing, Consumption, Pain, and Outcomes after Surgery.Annals of surgery open : perspectives of surgical history, education, and clinical approaches · 2025
    Article
  6. Article
  7. Postoperative Opioid Consumption After Discharge: An Update From the Michigan Surgical Quality Collaborative Registry.Annals of surgery open : perspectives of surgical history, education, and clinical approaches · 2024
    Article
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  9. Review
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors.

Craig S BrownDepartment of Surgery, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA brcraig@med.umich.edu.ORCID 0000-0002-2531-305X
Joceline V VuDepartment of Surgery, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA.
Ryan A HowardDepartment of Surgery, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA.
Vidhya GunaseelanMichigan Opioid Prescribing Engagement Network, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA.
Chad M BrummettMichigan Opioid Prescribing Engagement Network, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA.
Jennifer WaljeeMichigan Opioid Prescribing Engagement Network, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA.
Michael EnglesbeDepartment of Surgery, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA.

Funding

Health Services Research Training Years 32-36T32HS000053 · AHRQ · UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR · PI HIRTH, RICHARD A · 1992 to 2024
$7.3M
oPIOIDS: Prevention of Iatrogenic Opioid Dependence after SurgeryR01DA042859 · NIDA · UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR · PI BRUMMETT, CHAD M, WALJEE, JENNIFER FILIP · 2017 to 2021
$3.6M
Characterizing and Reducing New Persistent Opioid Use in Patients Undergoing Complex Major SurgeryF32DA050416 · NIDA · UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR · PI BROWN, CRAIG · 2020 to 2020
$74k
AHRQ HHS T32 HS000053NIDA NIH HHS F32 DA050416NIDA NIH HHS R01 DA042859
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundOpioids are prescribed in excess after surgery. We leveraged our continuous quality improvement infrastructure to implement opioid prescribing guidelines and subsequently evaluate changes in postoperative opioid prescribing, consumption and patient satisfaction/pain in a statewide regional health system.

methodsWe collected data regarding postoperative prescription size, opioid consumption and patient-reported outcomes from February 2017 to May 2019, from a 70-hospital surgical collaborative. Three iterations of prescribing guidelines were released. An interrupted time series analysis before and after each guideline release was performed. Linear regression was used to identify trends in consumption and patient-reported outcomes over time.

resultsWe included 36 022 patients from 69 hospitals who underwent one of nine procedures in the guidelines, of which 15 174 (37.3%) had complete patient-reported outcomes data following surgery. Before the intervention, prescription size was decreasing over time (slope: -0.7 tablets of 5 mg oxycodone/month, 95% CI -1.0 to -0.5 tablets, p<0.001). After the first guideline release, prescription size declined by -1.4 tablets/month (95% CI -1.8 to -1.0 tablets, p<0.001). The difference between these slopes was significant (p=0.006). The second guideline release resulted in a relative increase in slope (-0.3 tablets/month, 95% CI -0.1 to -0.6, p<0.001). The third guideline release resulted in no change (p=0.563 for the intervention). Overall, mean (SD) prescription size decreased from 25 (17) tablets of 5 mg oxycodone to 12 (8) tablets. Opioid consumption also decreased from 11 (16) to 5 (7) tablets (p<0.001), while satisfaction and postoperative pain remained unchanged.

conclusionsThe use of procedure-specific prescribing guidelines reduced statewide postoperative opioid prescribing by 50% while providing satisfactory pain care. These results demonstrate meaningful impact on opioid prescribing using evidence-based best practices and serve as an example of successful utilisation of a regional health collaborative for quality improvement.

Indexed as

Analgesics, OpioidQuality ImprovementHumansPostoperative PainPractice Patterns, Physicians'PrescriptionsAnalgesics, Opioidclinical practice guidelinescontinuous quality improvementhealth policypatient satisfactionquality improvement

Identifiers

PMID32938775
PMCPMC8056599

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Registered trials

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.