Correlation between Opioid Prescribing Habits and Patient Satisfaction

The purpose is to evaluate the correlation between patient-reported satisfaction measures and opioid prescribing practices of hand surgeons.

This retrospective study evaluated the opioid prescription practices of 19 fellowship-trained hand surgeons at a single practice, over a 12-month period. The total number of opioid prescriptions sent, opioid prescriptions per surgery, average total morphine milligram equivalents (MME) prescribed per patient and the average MME per prescription were determined. The correlation coefficients were calculated for the total opioid prescriptions and the likelihood to recommend a physician, the overall service impression and the impression of physician empathy.

5,089 patient satisfaction surveys were completed. Pearson's correlation demonstrated the "likelihood to recommend a surgeon" exhibited a moderate negative correlation with the total number of opioid prescriptions and the average MME per prescription (R=-0.38, R2=0.142, and R=-0.30, R2=0.089) respectively. Overall service impression exhibited a moderate negative correlation with total opioid prescriptions and average MME per prescription (R=-0.39, R2=0.142, and R=-0.30, R2=0.088), respectively. Perception of physician empathy exhibited a very weak negative correlation with total opioid prescriptions and weak correlation with average MME per prescription (R=-0.06, R2=0.004 and R=-0.29, R2=0.087), respectively. There were no statistically significant differences.

This study demonstrated that measures of patient satisfaction did not correlate with opioid prescriptions.