Study finds that opioids administered in the ER don’t influence patient satisfaction
By a
"Right now there is an epidemic of opioid related deaths and the
Clinical encounters in the emergency department (ED) often involve treatment of painful conditions. However, treatment of pain and the administration of opioids in the ED can be challenging for physicians because of a lack of familiarly with the patient, time constraints and concerns about patient safety. Additionally, in some emergency medicine settings, compensation and metrics of care are linked to Press Ganey ED patient satisfaction scores which may be perceived to be adversely influenced by the failure to administer opioids.
"In conferences and settings where we teach physicians about responsible opioid prescribing, one of the obstacles frequently mentioned is patient satisfaction, and the idea that physicians might be chastised or receive less compensation because their patient satisfaction scores are low," said
Seeking to quantify and validate the concerns of their colleagues, the study's authors looked at the link between opioids administered in the emergency room and patient satisfaction scores more rigorously. The researchers matched patient satisfaction responses to the corresponding de-identified electronic medical record data of 4,749 patients seen in the emergency room of two
The study found that there was no association between how much opioid pain medication was administered in the emergency room and patient satisfaction scores. Other factors such as wait time and physician and nurse communication play a far greater role in patient satisfaction, according to Babu.
"Based on these findings the administration of opioids in the emergency department setting does not make patients more satisfied," said Babu. "This suggests that emergency physicians should act in the best interest of the patient when deciding whether to prescribe or administer opioids."
Keywords for this news article include: Emergency Medicine,
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