Improving Opioid Stewardship in Pediatric Emergency Medicine

Poor opioid stewardship contributes to opioid misuse and adverse health outcomes. We sought to decrease opioid prescriptions in children 0 to 18 years treated for pain after fractures and cutaneous abscess drainage from 13.5% to 8%. Our secondary aims were to reduce opioid prescriptions written for >3 days from 41% to 10%, eliminate codeine prescriptions, increase safe opioid storage and disposal discharge instructions from 0% to 70%, and enroll all emergency department (ED) physicians in the state prescription drug monitoring program.

We implemented an intervention bundle on the basis of 4 key drivers at a pediatric ED: ED-wide education, changes in the electronic medical record, discharge resources, and process standardization. Two plan-do-study-act cycles were performed. Interventions included provider feedback on prescribing, safe opioid storage and disposal instructions, and streamlined electronic medical record functions. Run charts were used to analyze the effect of interventions on outcomes. Our balance measure was return ED or clinic visits for inadequate analgesia within 3 days.

During the intervention period, 249 of 3402 (7.3%) patients with fractures and cutaneous abscesses were prescribed opioids. The percentage of opioid prescriptions >3 days decreased from 41% to 13.2% (P < .0001), codeine prescription dropped from 1.1% to 0% (P = .09), opioid discharge instructions increased 0% to 100% (P < .0001), and all physicians enrolled in the prescription drug monitoring program. There was no change in return visits for uncontrolled analgesia compared with the baseline (P = .79).

A comprehensive opioid stewardship program can improve opioid prescribing practices of ED physicians and deliver information on safe storage and disposal of prescription opioids with a negligible effect on return visits for uncontrolled pain.