Provider bias in prescribing opioid analgesics: a study of electronic medical records at a hospital emergency department.
Keister LA, Stecher C, Aronson B, et al. Provider bias in prescribing opioid analgesics: a study of electronic medical records at a hospital emergency department. BMC Public Health. 2021;21(1):1518. doi:10.1186/s12889-021-11551-9.
Constrained diagnostic situations in the emergency department (ED), such as crowding, can impact safe care. Based on multiple years of electronic health record data from one ED at a large U.S. hospital, researchers found that providers were significantly less likely to prescribe opioids during constrained diagnostic situations and less likely to prescribe opioids to high-risk patients or racial/ethnic minorities.