A resident-driven quality initiative for reducing opioid prescribing in patients undergoing elective general surgery procedures, with long-term follow-up (15 December 2023)

Summary

The opioid epidemic has been declared a public health emergency in the US, with major news outlets calling operating rooms “unintended gateways.” In response to this emergency, a team from Thomas Jefferson University sought to decrease their organisation's contribution to the potential diversion pool—the opioids surgeons prescribe to patients which go unused. This article in the journal Patient Safety looks at the research and improvement work undertaken by the team, who concluded that surgical departments can develop opioid reduction toolkits aimed at reducing the potential diversion pool of opioids in communities.

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