The opioid epidemic: what can surgeons do about it? | PSNet

Provide Feedback |

Submit a Case

Register

Commentary

The opioid epidemic: what can surgeons do about it?

July 19, 2017

Saluja S, Selzer D, Meara JG, et al. Bull Am Coll Surg. 2017;102(7):13-18.

View more articles from the same authors.

Surgeons often prescribe opioids for patients after procedures, so they are in a key position to assess their opioid prescribing practices to manage risks. This commentary provides suggestions for surgeons at preoperative, postoperative, and outpatient care stages to address the potential for unsafe use of opioids. A recent PSNet perspective discussed opioid overdoses as a patient safety problem.

PubMed citation

Related Resources From the Same Author(s)

Latest Results From the "FIRST" Trial.

March 1, 2017

The Patient Safety in Surgery Study.

June 20, 2007

Overview of the Environmental Scan of Primary Care-Based Effort To Reduce Readmissions.

March 27, 2019

Learning from samples of one or fewer.

March 6, 2005

Validity of Patient Safety Indicators in the Veterans Health Administration.

June 22, 2011

Patient Safety in the Home: Assessment of Issues, Challenges, and Opportunities.

September 6, 2017

Human Factors in Anaesthesia and Critical Care.

July 14, 2010

Crisis preparedness: a systems-based framework for avoiding harm in surgery.

November 30, 2022

Preventable morbidity at a mature trauma center.

June 24, 2009

Risk reduction strategy to decrease incidence of retained surgical items.

August 31, 2022

Evaluation of postoperative handover using a tool to assess information transfer and teamwork.

May 4, 2011

Has the pendulum swung too far?; The impact of missed abdominal injuries in the era of nonoperative management.

September 16, 2009

Patient and hospital characteristics associated with delayed diagnosis of appendicitis.

February 1, 2023

Patient Safety and the Invitational Conference on Contemporary Surgical Quality, Safety and Transparency.

December 20, 2006

Oncologic errors in diagnostic radiology: a 10-year analysis based on medical malpractice claims.

November 10, 2021

Free-text computerized provider order entry orders used as workaround for communicating medication information.

August 31, 2022

IHI Framework for Improving Joy in Work.

August 9, 2017

The second victim of unanticipated adverse events.

December 14, 2022

Supporting recovery after adverse events: an essential component of surgeon well-being.

February 10, 2021

Association of coworker reports about unprofessional behavior by surgeons with surgical complications in their patients.

July 10, 2019

Usability and accessibility of publicly available patient safety databases.

June 1, 2022

Health Information Technology in the United States: The Information Base for Progress.

October 25, 2006

Improving Pediatric Surgery Quality and Outcomes in the 21st Century.

January 13, 2016

Toolkit to Engage High-Risk Patients in Safe Transitions Across Ambulatory Settings.

January 10, 2018

Communicating with patients about diagnostic errors in breast cancer care: providers' attitudes, experiences, and advice

January 22, 2020

Impact of the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist relative to its design and intended use: a systematic review and meta-meta-analysis.

November 24, 2021

The RCA ReCAst: a root cause analysis simulation for the interprofessional clinical learning environment.

July 14, 2021

Medical research and the Institutional Review Board: the librarian's role in human subject testing.

October 26, 2005

Racial disparities in diagnostic delay among women with breast cancer.

August 18, 2021

Surgical teams' attitudes about surgical safety and the surgical safety checklist at 10 years: a multinational survey.

November 17, 2021

Association of low-dose whole-body computed tomography with missed injury diagnoses and radiation exposure in patients with blunt multiple trauma.

February 5, 2020

Medication errors: the year in review.

October 23, 2019

Simulation in Otolaryngology.

September 27, 2017

Surgeon burnout, impact on patient safety and professionalism: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

March 16, 2022

Dangerous doses.

February 24, 2016

Hospital acquired infections in surgical patients: impact of COVID-19-related infection prevention measures.

April 20, 2022

Eighth Annual National Patient Safety Foundation Congress: Conference Proceedings.

October 4, 2006

Treatment patterns and clinical outcomes after the introduction of the Medicare Sepsis Performance Measure (SEP-1).

May 5, 2021

Three perspectives on changes in resident work environment and duty hours.

July 26, 2017

Absence or presence: silent discourse in the operating room and impact on surgical team action.

November 11, 2020

Serious hazards of transfusion: evaluating the dangers of a wrong patient autologous salvaged blood in cardiac surgery.

October 5, 2022

A system-based approach to managing patient safety in ambulatory care (and beyond).

January 10, 2018

Becoming a High Reliability Organization: Operational Advice for Hospital Leaders.

April 9, 2008

Understanding preventable deaths in the geriatric trauma population: analysis of 3,452,339 patients from the Center of Medicare and Medicaid Services Database.

December 1, 2021

Incidence and OR team awareness of “near-miss” and retained surgical sharps: a national survey on United States operating rooms.

June 23, 2021

Patient Safety.

May 24, 2017

Clinical reasoning in the wild: premature closure during the COVID-19 pandemic.

August 19, 2020

Reporting and Learning Systems for Medication Errors: The Role of Pharmacovigilance Centres.

November 19, 2014

Effect of a pharmacy-based centralized intravenous admixture service on the prevalence of medication errors: a before-and-after study.

August 10, 2022

Focus On: Health Care Policy and Quality.

December 6, 2017

Ethical considerations and patient safety concerns for cancelling non-urgent surgeries during the COVID-19 pandemic: a review.

May 12, 2021

Antimicrobial Stewardship.

September 19, 2018

Outcomes and patient safety in overlapping vs. nonoverlapping total joint arthroplasty: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

January 19, 2022

Errors in surgery: a case control study.

December 14, 2022

Preventing medical injury.

March 27, 2005

Cognitive biases in surgery: systematic review.

March 1, 2023

Defining and studying errors in surgical care: a systematic review.

August 17, 2022

Patient Safety/Quality Improvement Primer.

July 27, 2023

Fast tracking in cardiac surgery: is it safe?

May 11, 2022

Diagnostic error in the pediatric hospital: a narrative review.

February 9, 2022

Patient-Centered Care Improvement Guide.

November 12, 2008

Factors influencing providers' willingness to deprescribe medications.

December 1, 2021

Supporting involved health care professionals (second victims) following an adverse health event: a literature review.

August 15, 2012

Getting Ahead of Harm Before It Happens: A Guide About Proactive Analysis for Improving Surgical Care Safety.

October 11, 2017

Communication techniques for patients with low health literacy: a survey of physicians, nurses, and pharmacists.

October 24, 2007

Safety in Numbers: Evidence-based Development of a Medicine Management Learning Tool.

May 22, 2013

Assessing experiences of racism among Black and White patients in the emergency department.

January 25, 2023

Association between surgeon technical skills and patient outcomes.

September 9, 2020

Association of surgeon-patient sex concordance with postoperative outcomes,

December 22, 2021

Report 6: Managing Risk and Minimising Mistakes in Services to Children and Families.

October 5, 2005

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: An Update on the Quality of American Health Care Through the Patient's Lens.

April 12, 2006

Burnout Among Health Care Professionals. A Call to Explore and Address This Underrecognized Threat to Safe, High-Quality Care.

July 19, 2017

With Safety in Mind: Mental Health Services and Patient Safety.

September 6, 2006

Motion study in surgery.

July 26, 2006

Fast does not imply flawed: analyzing emergency physician productivity and medical errors.

December 14, 2022

Association of anesthesiologist staffing ratio with surgical patient morbidity and mortality.

August 3, 2022

Association between operative autonomy of surgical residents and patient outcomes.

March 23, 2022

The Silent Treatment: Why Safety Tools and Checklists Aren't Enough to Save Lives.

April 6, 2011

How to do no harm: empowering local leaders to make care safer in low-resource settings.

March 3, 2021

An In Depth Investigation into Causes of Prescribing Errors by Foundation Trainees in Relation to Their Medical Education—EQUIP Study.

January 6, 2010

Diagnostic accuracy of prehospital triage tools for identifying major trauma in elderly injured patients: a systematic review.

May 5, 2021

Performance variability in perioperative sentinel events: report on a nationwide data set.

April 20, 2022

Changes in hospital-acquired conditions and mortality associated with the hospital-acquired condition reduction program.

September 29, 2021

Measuring harm and informing quality improvement in the Welsh NHS: the longitudinal Welsh national adverse events study.

April 19, 2017

Understanding communication during hospitalist service changes: a mixed methods study.

January 6, 2010

Examining the Copy and Paste Function in the Use of Electronic Health Records.

March 1, 2017

Care Post-Roe: Documenting Cases of Poor-quality Care Since the Dobbs Decision.

June 7, 2023

The perception of the patient safety climate by health professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic-international research.

August 31, 2022

Enhancing patient safety during hand-offs: standardized communication and teamwork using the 'SBAR' method.

August 30, 2006

Rates of surgical consultations after emergency department admission in Black and White Medicare patients.

October 26, 2022

A national mixed-methods evaluation of preparedness for general surgery residency and the association with resident burnout.

September 2, 2020

Identification of common themes from never events data published by NHS England.

April 14, 2021

Pediatric surgical errors: a systematic scoping review.

July 20, 2022

Dual surgeon operating to improve patient safety.

September 29, 2021

Characteristics of critical incident reporting systems in primary care: an international survey.

January 19, 2022

Transparency, public reporting, and a culture of change to quality and safety in cardiac surgery.

November 9, 2022

We asked the experts: the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist and the COVID-19 pandemic: recommendations for content and implementation adaptations.

March 17, 2021

System factors affecting patient safety in the OR: an analysis of safety threats and resiliency.

August 25, 2021

Mortality due to hospital-acquired infection after cardiac surgery.

June 1, 2022

Avoiding a second wave of medical errors: the importance of human factors in the context of a pandemic.

August 26, 2020

View More

Related Resources

WebM&M Cases

Open wider: Failure to use an interpreter results in fractured teeth and hypoxia during a simple elective operation.

December 14, 2022

Nonopioid directives: unintended consequences in the operating room.

June 29, 2022

System factors affecting intraoperative risk and resilience: applying a novel integrated approach to study surgical performance and patient safety.

February 10, 2021

Real-time debriefing after critical events: exploring the gap between principle and reality.

November 18, 2020

Classification of opioid dependence, abuse, or overdose in opioid-naive patients as a "Never Event".

August 5, 2020

Are you surgically current? Lessons from aviation for returning to non-urgent surgery following COVID-19.

July 22, 2020

Developing perioperative Covid-19 testing protocols to restore surgical services.

July 22, 2020

Blueprint for restructuring a department of surgery in concert with the health care system during a pandemic: the University of Wisconsin Experience.

May 6, 2020

Perioperative COVID-19 defense: an evidence-based approach for optimization of infection control and operating room management.

April 22, 2020

When a vital sign leads a country astray—the opioid epidemic.

September 4, 2019

Transition planning for the senior surgeon: guidance and recommendations from the Society of Surgical Chairs.

May 29, 2019

Bringing perioperative emergency manuals to your institution: a "How To" from concept to implementation in 10 steps.

April 3, 2019

Association between long-term opioid use in family members and persistent opioid use after surgery among adolescents and young adults.

March 13, 2019

Assessing the performance of aging surgeons.

January 30, 2019

Interventions for postsurgical opioid prescribing: a systematic review.

September 19, 2018

First-year analysis of the Operating Room Black Box study.

July 25, 2018

Defining, estimating, and communicating overdiagnosis in cancer screening.

June 27, 2018

Association of opioid-related adverse drug events with clinical and cost outcomes among surgical patients in a large integrated health care delivery system.

June 20, 2018

FDA Safety Communication: recommendations to reduce surgical fires and related patient injury.

June 20, 2018

Advances in perioperative quality and safety.

June 13, 2018

Patterns of potential opioid misuse and subsequent adverse outcomes in Medicare, 2008 to 2012.

June 6, 2018

Creating a safer operating room: groups, team dynamics and crew resource management principles.

June 6, 2018

Clinicians' perceptions of medication errors with opioids in cancer and palliative care services: a priority setting report.

May 30, 2018

1,300 days and counting: a risk model approach to preventing retained foreign objects (RFOs).

May 23, 2018

Disruptive physician behavior: the importance of recognition and intervention and its impact on patient safety.

May 16, 2018

Multisource evaluation of surgeon behavior is associated with malpractice claims.

April 11, 2018

Opioid prescribing practices from 2010 through 2015 among dentists in the United States: what do claims data tell us?

April 11, 2018

Strategies for optimizing OR drug safety.

April 4, 2018

Pain states, the opioid epidemic, and the role of radiologists.

April 4, 2018

Diagnostic performance dashboards: tracking diagnostic errors using big data.

April 4, 2018

View More

See More About The Topic

Facility and Group Administrators

Opiates/Narcotics

To sign up for updates or to access your subscriber preferences, please enter your email address below.

5600 Fishers Lane
Rockville, MD 20857
Telephone: (301) 427-1364