A study at HSS finds strong evidence that health care provider education and guidelines are effective in reducing the amount of opioids prescribed to patients when they are discharged from the hospital.

Todd J. Albert, MD, HSS surgeon-in-chief, noted, "Given the opioid crisisand pendulum swinging from pain being the 5th vital sign to physicians massively overprescribing, we at HSS wanted to be leaders in opioid education and appropriate use/prescribing methodology. We started with education—our program had 100% compliance across the institution. Then we studied the before and after prescribing behavior with education, and then with guidelines."

The study, which HSS conducted with another major hospital in Chicago, included data for 2,479 patients who had undergone lumbar spine surgery.

Read the full article at Orthopedics This Week.