Surgeon experience and opioid prescribing.

ABSTRACT:

Background

We evaluated the effects of surgeon characteristics such as surgeon experience on differences in opioid prescribing after surgery.

Methods

We evaluated a 20% national sample of Medicare beneficiaries ≥65 years old who underwent 15 different types of surgery to identify surgeon characteristics associated with opioid prescription size filled within seven days of discharge using a multi-level linear model.

Results

174,141 patients and 13,828 surgeons met inclusion criteria. 53.8% of patients filled an opioid prescription within seven days postoperatively. The amount of opioids prescribed after surgery was highest for patients whose surgeons were early in practice (i.e. 0-7 years in practice). Surgeon credentials, type of surgery, and geographic region were ass

SUBMITTER: Santosa KB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8191754 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature