Out of sight, out of mind? The impact on trauma patient opioid use when the medicine administration schedule is not displayed.

Introduction: The impact of a visual pain medication schedule on opioid use among hospitalized trauma patients is unknown. We examined whether removal of this displayed schedule would decrease oral morphine equivalent (OME) use.

Methods: This retrospective cohort study compared OME use in trauma patients in the inpatient setting before and after removing the patient-facing pain medication schedule that is typically displayed on the patient's white board for all trauma admissions.

Results: 707 patients were included. The control (n = 308, 43.6%) and intervention (n = 399, 56.4%) groups were similar in age (p = 0.06). There was no difference in total inpatient OME use between the control and intervention groups, median 50 (IQR: 22.5-118) vs 60 (IQR: 22.5-126), p = 0.79, respectively. No difference in total OME use was observed when patients were stratified by age, sex, race, ISS, and length of hospital stay.

Conclusion: Removing a visual display of the pain medication schedule did not decrease OME use in inpatient trauma patients.