Increasing Implementation of Post-Operative Opioid Prescribing Guidelines

This research study will analyze results from a Penn Medicine Opioid Task Force initiative using a two-arm stepped-wedge cluster randomized trial design. The feedback intervention will be rolled out across all participating Penn Medicine surgical departments and divisions currently using Penn Medicine's post-operative text-messaging learning health system platform. Timing of intervention roll-out within each department and division will be randomly assigned to permit evaluation of the effect of the intervention.

With the stepped wedge design, not only will all attendings and associated prescribers ultimately receive the intervention, but by the end of the trial, each will be actively using the intervention, meaning its sustenance would occur automatically. A stepped-wedge design will be utilized, in which all clinicians begin in usual care and the order in which they adopt interventions is randomly assigned, because it has both practical and scientific advantages over traditional parallel-cluster randomized designs, in which randomization determines which clusters adopt the intervention at all. Importantly, the stepped-wedge design provides time to prepare surgical divisions for implementation of the intervention(s), enhances stakeholders' enthusiasm for participating by ensuring that each will receive the intervention(s), and typically increases statistical power. The primary analysis of study outcomes will be conducted at the patient-level. Secondary analyses will be conducted at the prescriber and attending surgeon level.

Inclusion criteria

• All surgical prescribers (surgeons, advanced practice providers or resident physicians) who have written at least 5 opioid prescriptions per month for patients undergoing an eligible procedure during the baseline period or attending surgeons who performed an eligible procedure during the baseline period.
• Procedures are eligible to be included if there are a minimum of 10 unique cases during any given month and post-operative opioids are prescribed. Data on patient reported opioid use, pain scores, and ability to manage pain is currently being collected by Penn Medicine's post-operative text messaging platform. As of February 15, 2022, there were 30 procedures defined by Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) groupings that meet these criteria.
• In the research study analysis, patients will be included in the primary sample if they (1) undergo an eligible surgical procedure by an eligible attending surgeon, and (2) the proportion of guideline compliant prescriptions written during the baseline period for that procedure was less than 90%.

Exclusion criteria

• None