Abstract
Background: Addiction to opioids following orthopedic surgery continues to escalate in America. Contributing to this risk may be the lack of nonopioid alternatives offered to patients in the postsurgical timeframe. Research shows that offering nonopioid alternatives may decrease the rate of addiction. Excessive consumption of opioids also causes complications including prolonged recovery, sedation, altered sensorium, constipation, respiratory depression, falls, decreased activity, and cognitive declines in those with underlying dementia. A review of the literature revealed that evidence-based nonopioid alternative methods are available which decrease the use of opioids; therefore, a quality improvement project was designed to reduce the number of opioid doses in patients undergoing rehabilitation following orthopedic surgery. Objective: The main objective was to decrease the amount of opioid consumption in the postsurgical patient population. Methods: The quality improvement methodology involved the creation of a nonopioid order set which included acetaminophen rapid release, ice packs, Biofreeze, compression hose, lidocaine 4% patches, and elevation of affected surgical sites when appropriate. All participants of the project received the nonopioid order set. The number of opioid tablets consumed the previous year was compared to the number of opioid tablets consumed following implementation of the order set. Results: The final results revealed that nonopioid methods decreased opioid consumption by 27.7% in this particular group of rehabilitation participants. Conclusions: The use of a nonopioid order set appeared to decrease the use of opioids in post-surgical patients.