Opioid ordering habits in the acute emergency department visit: Before and after implementation of departmental prescribing guidelines

ObjectiveAt our emergency department (ED), opioid prescribing guidelines were implemented in September 2016. The opioid prescribing guidelines were adopted and revised from collective efforts and advocacy of the Michigan College of Emergency Physicians for ED-led opioid stewardship. We performed a retrospective before and after study to determine if opioid prescribing guidelines would change the use of intravenous opioids per patient and the morphine equivalent units (MEU) per patient in a suburban academic ED. MethodsA retrospective observational study was conducted at a tertiary care level 1 trauma center with an annual ED volume of approximate to 130,000 visits. All intravenous orders of fentanyl, morphine, and hydromorphone for adult patients from January 1, 2015, through December 31, 2017, were tabulated. A 3-month (August 2016-October 2016) washout period was used. Poisson and ordinary linear regression analyses were employed to evaluate any difference in number of intravenous opioids ordered before and after adoption of the guidelines. Within our opioid prescribing guidelines was also guidance for oral opioid orders within the ED and oral opioid prescriptions for discharge, although these elements were not included in this investigation. ResultsA total of 108,327 intravenous opioid orders were included in the final analysis. After adoption of the opioid prescribing guidelines, the expected number of intravenous opioids ordered dropped by 3.1% (e(beta), 0.969; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.779-1.209), and there was an additional decrease of 0.1% per month (e(beta), 0.999; 95% CI, 0.990-1.010). After the adoption of opioid prescribing guidelines, the average MEU dropped by 0.3 mg (95% CI, -0.47 to -0.13), and there was decrease of 0.01 mg per month (95% CI, -0.02 to -0.004). ConclusionAfter the adoption of opioid prescribing guidelines, our analysis suggests that opioid prescribing guidelines are associated with clinically small but statistically significant changes in MEU ordered in ED. We cannot determine if this represented a continued trend of decreased opioid use or associated with the opioid prescribing guidelines.