Premium
Opioid prescribing: an assessment using quality statements
Author(s) -
Jenkins B. G.,
Tuffin P. H. R.,
Choo C. L.,
Schug S. A.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
journal of clinical pharmacy and therapeutics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.622
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1365-2710
pISSN - 0269-4727
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2710.2005.00690.x
Subject(s) - medicine , opioid , dosing , audit , medical prescription , emergency medicine , anesthesia , intensive care medicine , pharmacology , receptor , management , economics
Summary Objective: An audit of opioid prescribing in a large teaching hospital across all specialties was conducted to identify areas for improvement. Methods: Opioid medications prescribed for the entire patient admission were recorded and assessed using quality statements. Results and Discussion: Of 334 patients reviewed 209 (62·6%) were prescribed an opioid. Poly‐prescribing of ‘when required’ (p.r.n.) opioids was frequent with 107 (51·2%) patients having more than one ‘p.r.n.’ opioid. Dosing intervals were too long for 146 (69·8%) patients leaving them at risk of breakthrough pain. The intramuscular route was prescribed for 100 (47·8%) patients, and 49 (23·4%) of prescriptions had an inappropriate variety of administration routes. Conclusion: Although the criteria for assessing opioid prescribing were stringent the prescribing was sub‐optimal. This survey will form the basis for future quality initiatives.