A Statewide Surgical Quality Improvement Collaborative’s Opioid Data Collection

Introduction: Our statewide surgical quality improvement (QI) collaborative began collecting opioid data to better understand our patients’ pain management and discharge opioid prescriptions. During our pilot there was invalid data requiring variable revision. Collection resumed in 1/2020 and was encouraged during COVID-19, acknowledging that we faced reduced and highly selective operative case volumes with reduced resources. Methods: Institutions from a statewide surgical QI collaborative participated in the revised custom variable opioid data collection. Utilizing the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) platform, seven custom variable data were collected for 13 general surgery procedures. Variables were abstracted by Surgical Clinical Reviewers from 1/2020-12/2020. Results: 722 cases were performed. 460 (64%) cases had all variable data submitted, 102 (14%) had at least one and 160 (22%) cases had no variables submitted. Postoperative/in-patient opioids and non-opioids administered were the most likely to be submitted (73% and 73%). 489 cases (68%) had submitted data on use of an opioid sparing strategy. 483 (67%) cases had some discharge opioid prescription data, but only 357 cases (49%) had adequate data to standardize for comparison. Conclusion: A significant decrease in collection of the three minimally revised variables was observed. However, from revising the discharge opioid prescription variable from free text to a pre-populated selection, the quality of data improved significantly. This will allow the collaborative to standardize discharge opioid prescribing. Custom variable opioid data collection is feasible and can be utilized to inform collaborative opioid prescribing practices.