Peer-Reviewed Journal: Opioid Discharge Support

Written by Bradley S Kushner, Wen Hui Tan, Margaret Sehnert, Katherine Jordan, Rebecca Aft, Matthew Silviera, L Michael Brunt | June 3, 2021 at 5:47 PM

Assessment of postoperative opioid stewardship using a novel electronic-based automated text and phone messaging platform

Highlights:

The text-message based program demonstrated the high engagement and accessibility for which Epharmix, now CareSignal, is known: over 80% of patients engaged with more than half of all messages.
The Deviceless RPM program enabled patients to report opioid usage, pain, refill requests and disposal behaviors to their clinician.
At the conclusion of the program, only 3.2% of patients requested an opioid refill after their initial prescription.
Patient-reported satisfaction with the level of communication and the messaging program experience was extremely positive; 96% of patients in the program reported high satisfaction with the level of communication with their provider and with their experience using the program.

Background: Practices of opioid prescribing vary widely across general surgery providers. The goal of this study was to use a text-based platform to assess postdischarge opioid utilization.

Methods: A prospective, cohort study enrolled adult patients undergoing operations across the following 3 general surgery sections: minimally invasive surgery, colorectal, and surgical oncology. Using Epharmix, an electronic text-based platform, short message service text messages were sent to enrolled patients on postdischarge days 1 to 7, 14, 2, and 28 inquiring about the number of opioid pills taken since discharge and pain medication refills.

Conclusion: A text-based platform can track reliably patients' opioid usage postdischarge. Such platforms may facilitate the development of data-driven, standardized practices of opioid prescribing matched to patients' anticipated opioid usage postdischarge.

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