Clinical Decision Support to Increase Emergency Department Naloxone Coprescribing: Implementation Report.

Background: Coprescribing naloxone with opioid analgesics is a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) best practice to mitigate the risk of fatal opioid overdose, yet coprescription by emergency medicine clinicians is rare, occurring less than 5% of the time it is indicated. Clinical decision support (CDS) has been associated with increased naloxone prescribing; however, key CDS design characteristics and pragmatic outcome measures necessary to understand replicability and effectiveness have not been reported.

Objective: This study aimed to rigorously evaluate and quantify the impact of CDS designed to improve emergency department (ED) naloxone coprescribing.

Variability in Practice of Buprenorphine Treatment by Emergency Department Operational Characteristics.

Introduction: We sought to describe emergency department (ED) buprenorphine treatment variability among EDs with varying operational characteristics.

Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort study of adult patients with opioid use disorder discharged from 12 hospital-based EDs within a large healthcare system as a secondary data analysis of a quality improvement study. Primary outcome of interest was buprenorphine treatment rate.

A Retrospective Evaluation of Adjunctive Phenobarbital vs. Benzodiazepine Alone for the Treatment of Moderate Alcohol Withdrawal in the Emergency Department.

Background: Phenobarbital has been used in the emergency department (ED) as both a primary and adjunctive medication for alcohol withdrawal, but previous studies evaluating its impact on patient outcomes are limited by heterogenous symptom severity.

Objectives: We compared the clinical outcomes of ED patients with moderate alcohol withdrawal who received phenobarbital, with or without benzodiazepines, with patients who received benzodiazepine treatment alone.

Methods: This is a retrospective cohort study conducted at a single academic medical center utilizing chart review of ED patients with moderate alcohol withdrawal between 2015 and 2020.

A qualitative assessment of emergency physicians' experiences with robust emergency department buprenorphine bridge programs.

Objectives: Emergency departments (EDs) are a critical point of entry into treatment for patients struggling with opioid use disorder (OUD). When initiated in the ED, buprenorphine is associated with increased addiction treatment engagement at 30 days when initiated. Despite this association, it has had slow adoption.

Leveraging a Learning Collaborative Model to Develop and Pilot Quality Measures to Improve Opioid Prescribing in the Emergency Department.

The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) Emergency Medicine Quality Network (E-QUAL) Opioid Initiative was launched in 2018 to advance the dissemination of evidence-based resources to promote the care of emergency department (ED) patients with opioid use disorder. This virtual platform-based national learning collaborative includes a low-burden, structured quality improvement project, data benchmarking, tailored educational content, and resources designed to support a nationwide network of EDs with limited administrative and research infrastructure. As a part of this collaboration, we convened a group of experts to identify and design a set of measures to improve opioid prescribing practices to provide safe analgesia while reducing opioid-related harms.

Implementation of Electronic Health Record Integration and Clinical Decision Support to Improve Emergency Department Prescription Drug Monitoring Program Use.

Study Objective(s): To evaluate the implementation of 3 electronic health record (EHR)-based interventions to increase prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP) use in the emergency department (ED): EHR-PDMP integration, addition of a PDMP risk score, and addition of EHR-based clinical decision support alert to review the PDMP when prescribing an opioid.

Methods: Three intervention stages were implemented using a prospective stepped-wedge design at 5 university-affiliated EDs split into 3 practice groups. The PDMP use and prescribing rates during the 3 stages were compared with baseline before EHR integration and a sustainability stage where the clinical decision support alert was removed, but EHR integration and risk score remained.

Impact of Statewide Statute Limiting Days' Supply to Opioid-Naive Patients.

Introduction: To address the ongoing opioid crisis, states use policy enactment to restrict prescribing by licensed healthcare providers and mandate the use of Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs. There have been mixed results regarding the effectiveness of such state policies. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of Colorado Senate Bill 18-022, which limits opioid prescriptions to ≤7-day supply among patients without an opioid prescription in the previous year (i.

Targeted messaging to improve the adoption of clinical decision support for prescription drug monitoring program use.

Clinical decision support (CDS) can prevent medical errors and improve patient outcomes. Electronic health record (EHR)-based CDS, designed to facilitate prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP) review, has reduced inappropriate opioid prescribing. However, the pooled effectiveness of CDS has exhibited substantial heterogeneity and current literature does not adequately detail why certain CDS are more successful than others.

Implementation strategies to address the determinants of adoption, implementation, and maintenance of a clinical decision support tool for emergency department buprenorphine initiation: a qualitative study.

Background: Untreated opioid use disorder (OUD) is a significant public health problem. Buprenorphine is an evidence-based treatment for OUD that can be initiated in and prescribed from emergency departments (EDs) and office settings. Adoption of buprenorphine initiation among ED clinicians is low.

Improving Uptake of Emergency Department-initiated Buprenorphine: Barriers and Solutions.

Emergency departments (ED) are increasingly providing buprenorphine to persons with opioid use disorder. Buprenorphine programs in the ED have strong support from public health leaders and emergency medicine specialty societies and have proven to be clinically effective, cost effective, and feasible. Even so, few ED buprenorphine programs currently exist.

User centered clinical decision support to implement initiation of buprenorphine for opioid use disorder in the emergency department: EMBED pragmatic cluster randomized controlled trial.

Objective: To determine the effect of a user centered clinical decision support tool versus usual care on rates of initiation of buprenorphine in the routine emergency care of individuals with opioid use disorder.

Design: Pragmatic cluster randomized controlled trial (EMBED).

Setting: 18 emergency department clusters across five healthcare systems in five states representing the north east, south east, and western regions of the US, ranging from community hospitals to tertiary care centers, using either the Epic or Cerner electronic health record platform.

Consensus Recommendations on the Treatment of Opioid Use Disorder in the Emergency Department.

The treatment of opioid use disorder with buprenorphine and methadone reduces morbidity and mortality in patients with opioid use disorder. The initiation of buprenorphine in the emergency department (ED) has been associated with increased rates of outpatient treatment linkage and decreased drug use when compared to patients randomized to receive standard ED referral. As such, the ED has been increasingly recognized as a venue for the identification and initiation of treatment for opioid use disorder, but no formal American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) recommendations on the topic have previously been published.

Emergency Department Visits for Nonfatal Opioid Overdose During the COVID-19 Pandemic Across Six US Health Care Systems.

Study Objective: People with opioid use disorder are vulnerable to disruptions in access to addiction treatment and social support during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our study objective was to understand changes in emergency department (ED) utilization following a nonfatal opioid overdose during COVID-19 compared to historical controls in 6 healthcare systems across the United States.

Methods: Opioid overdoses were retrospectively identified among adult visits to 25 EDs in Alabama, Colorado, Connecticut, North Carolina, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island from January 2018 to December 2020.

Provider Reactions to Opioid-Prescribing Report Cards.

Objective: To evaluate prescribers' reactions and self-reported intentions to change prescribing behavior in response to opioid-prescribing report cards.

Design: We surveyed a sample of licensed prescribers in the state of Colorado registered with the state's prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP).

Setting: In 2018, Colorado disseminated tailored opioid-prescribing report cards to increase use of the PDMP and improve opioid prescribing.

Physician attitudes on buprenorphine induction in the emergency department: results from a multistate survey.

Study Objective: Emergency Departments (ED) are rapidly becoming an important location for initiation of buprenorphine (EDBUP) for the treatment of opioid use disorder (OUD). Previous investigations of emergency medicine physicians' perceived barriers and attitudes toward EDBUP exclusively sampled from urban, academic-affiliated physicians. We administered a multistate survey to an institutionally and geographically diverse collection of emergency medicine physicians to better understand the professional opinions of EDBUP implementation across a variety of practice settings.

Trends in Emergency Department Visits and Hospital Admissions in Health Care Systems in 5 States in the First Months of the COVID-19 Pandemic in the US.

Importance: As coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) spread throughout the US in the early months of 2020, acute care delivery changed to accommodate an influx of patients with a highly contagious infection about which little was known.

Objective: To examine trends in emergency department (ED) visits and visits that led to hospitalizations covering a 4-month period leading up to and during the COVID-19 outbreak in the US.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This retrospective, observational, cross-sectional study of 24 EDs in 5 large health care systems in Colorado (n = 4), Connecticut (n = 5), Massachusetts (n = 5), New York (n = 5), and North Carolina (n = 5) examined daily ED visit and hospital admission rates from January 1 to April 30, 2020, in relation to national and the 5 states' COVID-19 case counts.

Self-Reported Opioid Use and Driving Outcomes among Older Adults: The AAA LongROAD Study.

Background: Opioid medications are important therapeutic options to mitigate the harmful effects of pain but can also impair driving ability. We sought to explore opioid use, pain levels, and driving experiences among older drivers.

Methods: Cognitively intact drivers ages 65 to 79 years were recruited for the multisite AAA Longitudinal Research on Aging Drivers (LongROAD) study (n = 2990).

Association of Emergency Department Opioid Administration With Ongoing Opioid Use: A Retrospective Cohort Study of Patients With Back Pain.

Objectives: Opioids are commonly administered in the emergency department (ED) and prescribed for the treatment of back pain. It is important to understand the unintended consequences of this approach to inform treatment decisions and the consideration of alternative treatments. Recent evidence has shown that ED opioid prescriptions are associated with future opioid use.

Progress Report on EMBED: A Pragmatic Trial of User-Centered Clinical Decision Support to Implement EMergency Department-Initiated BuprenorphinE for Opioid Use Disorder.

Unlabelled: Buprenorphine (BUP) can safely and effectively reduce craving, overdose, and mortality rates in people with opioid use disorder (OUD). However, adoption of ED-initiation of BUP has been slow partly due to physician perception this practice is too complex and disruptive. We report progress of the ongoing EMBED ( project.

A novel social work approach to emergency department buprenorphine induction and warm hand-off to community providers.

Study Objective: Medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) is considered gold standard treatment for persons with an opioid use disorder and can be successfully initiated in emergency departments (EDBUP). Perceived provider barriers to EDBUP adoption include increased provider work, lack of provider knowledge about outpatient MOUD resources, and a lack of viable MOUD treatment options within health systems. We evaluated the feasibility of a novel EDBUP institutional design that utilizes the social work team to drive ED care for patients with OUD and coordinate MOUD referral to existing community resources.