American College of Surgeons Addresses Opioid Prescription Misuse with Personalized Patient Education Project

Newswise — CHICAGO: A new quality improvement project led by the American College of Surgeons (ACS) will evaluate the most effective ways to help patients safely manage pain after surgery and reduce the risk of opioid dependence.

While opioid prescribing has gone down in the past 5 years, two-thirds of drug overdose deaths are due to prescription or illicit opioids.¹ For many patients requiring surgery, surgeons typically are the first healthcare professionals to prescribe medication and advise on pain management. How best to reduce opioid dependence and improve communication and educational plans between insurance providers, surgical professionals, and patients remains a vital challenge.

Directly educating patients about safe pain control

This project will be conducted in collaboration with Health Care Service Corporation^SM, a Mutual Legal Reserve Company (HCSC), the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, and the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. ACS has engaged in a collaborative relationship with HCSC to broaden the understanding of the impact of patient and provider education/outreach on reducing the number of new, persistent opioid users following targeted surgical procedures.

As part of the project, patients who are having non-emergency hip, knee, and shoulder replacement procedures, or certain forms of spine surgery, will receive comprehensive safe pain control educational materials developed by the ACS and partner organizations directly from their care team.

“This prospective study will determine the effectiveness of direct education to patients on opioid-sparing safe pain control using multimedia formats in both high and average-risk surgical musculoskeletal populations,” said Lenworth M. Jacobs, MD, MPH, DSc (Hon), FACS, FWACS (Hon), co-chair of the ACS Patient Education Committee. “The model will determine the impact of distributing trusted education developed by the ACS direct to surgeons and patients and will result in a cost-effective meaningful method that yields the best results for surgical patients.”

Overdose deaths involving opioids, including prescription opioids, have increased by more than eight times since 1999, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.² To address the unique challenges of opioid misuse, the ACS has prioritized patient education, and the role surgeons can play in safe pain management.

This program will be one of the largest interventions specific to high-risk patients undergoing musculoskeletal surgeries. The educational materials are expected to reach up to 6,000 patients annually.

“We are excited to collaborate with ACS on such an important initiative,” said Ben Kurian, MD, MPH, executive medical director at HCSC. “This is an opportunity to provide evidence-based education to at-risk patients through unified messaging from their health insurer and providers. Our hope is that this collaboration will significantly reduce new, persistent opioid use after surgery.”

Increasing access to life-saving resources

In their surgery pre-approval letter, members insured under an HCSC policy will receive access to online content that they can view anytime. Additionally, select high-risk patients will be contacted by an HCSC case manager before surgery, who will use ACS resources on postoperative pain management along with other support services. HCSC is the largest customer-owned health insurer in the United States, serving more than 18 million members across Illinois, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas.

Patient engagement will be measured by determining what percentage of patients, assessed by risk, access the Safe Pain Control Program materials provided as part of their pre-approval letter and following case manager contact for high-risk patients.

Any member of the public not served by HCSC can also access various safe pain control educational materials on the ACS website at no cost. Surgeons are also invited to view a one-hour webinar about the collaboration and obtain CME credit.

“As practicing surgeons, it is important that we continue to educate ourselves and our patients on the best practices around safe pain control,” said co-investigator Jonah J. Stulberg, MD, PhD, MPH, FACS, a member of the ACS Patient Education Committee and vice chair of research for the department of surgery at UTHealth Houston. “Efforts like this offer high-quality evidence-based approaches that we can rely on to improve our post-operative pain management.”

Opioid misuse and opioid alternatives

More than 70% of patients awaiting musculoskeletal surgery experience pain that interferes with daily functioning, including difficulty going up or down stairs, stiffness, swelling, pain in bed, and avoiding exercise.³ It is estimated that 10%-15% of these patients use opioids intermittently to help manage their pain.^4,5 Preoperative opioid use increases the risk of complications following surgery, such as dislocation due to increased fall risk or increased emergency room visits,² as well as the development of tolerance to or dependence on opioids.

Research has shown that the rate of opioid misuse is related to two main factors:

• The length of time the patient used opioids
• If refills were provided

Research suggests that providing patients with education and a list of all pain-relief options, including over-the-counter ibuprofen and acetaminophen in addition to opioids, can reduce opioid doses by 50%.⁶

Learn more about the ACS Safe Pain Control After Surgery Program.

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1. Newsroom, C. “US drug overdose deaths continue to rise: increase fueled by synthetic opioids.” Page last reviewed: March 29, 2018, https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2018/p0329-drug-overdose-deaths.html
2. “Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control,” CDC, Last Reviewed: May 8, 2023, https://www.cdc.gov/opioids/data/index.html
3. Nguyen, Uyen-Sa DT, David C. Ayers, Wenjun Li, Leslie R. Harrold, and Patricia D. Franklin. “Preoperative pain and function: profiles of patients selected for total knee arthroplasty.” The Journal of arthroplasty31, no. 11 (2016): 2402-2407.
4. Ravi, Bheeshma, Daniel Pincus, Ruth Croxford, Timothy Leroux, J Michael Paterson, Gillian Hawker, and Donald A. Redelmeier. “Patterns of pre-operative opioid use affect the risk for complications after total joint replacement.” Scientific Reports11, no. 1 (2021): 22124.
5. Naylor, Justine M., Natalie Pavlovic, Melissa Farrugia, Shaniya Ogul, Danella Hackett, Anthony Wan, Sam Adie, et al. “Associations between pre-surgical daily opioid use and short-term outcomes following knee or hip arthroplasty: a prospective, exploratory cohort study.” BMC musculoskeletal disorders21, no. 1 (2020): 1-10.
6. Yajnik, Meghana, Jonay N. Hill, Oluwatobi O. Hunter, Steven K. Howard, T. Edward Kim, T. Kyle Harrison, and Edward R. Mariano. “Patient education and engagement in postoperative pain management decreases opioid use following knee replacement surgery.” Patient education and counseling102, no. 2 (2019): 383-387.