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Like all providers who prescribe opioids, emergency physicians have varying prescribing practices. Practice-variation reporting has been shown to reduce variation in other areas of emergency medicine and to study its effect on opioid prescribing, these authors randomized 109 providers in four U.S. EDs to an intervention or control group. The intervention group was asked to estimate their opioid prescribing rates relative to their peers, and then shown data regarding their actual practices. Changes in opioid prescription rates were assessed at 6 and 12 months.
Overall, all providers decreased their opioid prescriptions by 3.5 and 4.3 prescriptions/100 patients at 6 and 12 months, respectively. Of the providers in the intervention group, 65% u…