The Effect of Statewide Legislation on Narcotics Prescribing in the Lower Orthopedic Trauma Patient

Connie DeLa'O, MD, Michelle Braemer, MD, David Hubbard, MD, Julie Glener, MD, Christina Deusenberry, PharmD, Macy Carder, MS, and Erika Lerfald*
Trauma Surgery and Orthopedic Trauma, WVU Medicine, Morgantown, WV, 26505

Presentation Category: Health Sciences (Poster presentation)

Student’s Major: Biology

On June 7, 2018, the Opioid Reduction Act was passed into law in West Virginia in order to combat the state’s opioid epidemic. The law intended to limit the ability of healthcare practitioners to overprescribe opioids by setting restrictions on the amount of medication, number of refills, and duration of supply they are allowed to prescribe. Additionally, it required prescribers to discuss the inherent risk of addiction in taking opioids with patients. This research sought to determine the effect of this law on prescribing patterns in the lower trauma injury population at Ruby Memorial Hospital in West Virginia. If this law was effective in inhibiting the prescribing of refillable opioid prescriptions in these trauma patients, and the prescription patterns before and after the law was passed were compared, then the amount of prescribed and refilled prescriptions will have decreased after the law was passed in 2018. This study is conducted through retrospective chart review of an ACS verified level I trauma center including a population of trauma patients who were admitted prior to and after the implementation of the Opioid Reduction Act. For all patients in the study, a multi-state board of pharmacy report was obtained, as well as data on opioid prescriptions filled 3 months prior to admission and othercontextual data. This data was compared using t-tests and chi-square analysis to determine if a significant change in opioid prescribing patterns occurred. Though this study has not yet been concluded and data are currently being collected, the results will be significant as they indicate whether the enactment of the Opioid Reduction Act successfully reduced opioid prescriptions in the state of West Virginia.

Funding: Not funded

Program/mechanism supporting research/creative efforts: WVU's Research Apprenticeship Program (RAP) & accompanying HONR 297-level course