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Opioid prescribing: an assessment using quality statements
B G Jenkins1, P H R Tuffin, C L Choo
1Pharmacy Department, Royal Perth Hospital, Western Australia. barry.jenkins@health.wa.gov.au
Objective:
An audit of opioid prescribing in a large teaching hospital across all specialties was conducted to identify areas for improvement.
Methods:
Opioid medications prescribed for the entire patient admission were recorded and assessed using quality statements.
Results And Discussion:
Of 334 patients reviewed 209 (62.6%) were prescribed an opioid. Poly-prescribing of 'when required' (p.r.n.) opioids was frequent with 107 (51.2%) patients having more than one 'p.r.n.' opioid. Dosing intervals were too long for 146 (69.8%) patients leaving them at risk of breakthrough pain. The intramuscular route was prescribed for 100 (47.8%) patients, and 49 (23.4%) of prescriptions had an inappropriate variety of administration routes.
Conclusion:
Although the criteria for assessing opioid prescribing were stringent the prescribing was sub-optimal. This survey will form the basis for future quality initiatives.
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