Emergency Physician Opioid Prescribing and Risk of Long-term Use in the Veterans Health Administration: an Observational Analysis.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Treatment by high-opioid prescribing physicians in the emergency department (ED) is associated with higher rates of long-term opioid use among Medicare beneficiaries. However, it is unclear if this result is true in other high-risk populations such as Veterans.

Objective

To estimate the effect of exposure to high-opioid prescribing physicians on long-term opioid use for opioid-naïve Veterans.

Design

Observational study using Veterans Health Administration (VA) encounter and prescription data.

Setting and participants

Veterans with an index ED visit at any VA facility in 2012 and without opioid prescriptions in the prior 6 months in the VA system ("opioid naïve").

Measurements

We assigned patients to emergency physicians and categorized physici

SUBMITTER: Barnett ML 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6667564 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature