There is a 20.8 percent prevalence of postoperative 'doctor shopping' in the orthopedic trauma population, according to a study published in the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery.
The prospective cohort study used the state-controlled substance monitoring database to identify all narcotic prescriptions filled three months prior to admission and six months following discharge for enrolled patients. Complete data was available for 130 of 151 eligible patients.
The study found 20.8 percent of patients sought multiple narcotic providers after their procedures. There were significant increases in postoperative narcotic prescriptions between the single narcotic provider group and the multiple narcotic provider group. Also, patients with a high school education or less were 3.2 times more likely to seek multiple providers and patients with a history of preoperative narcotic use were 4.5 times more likely to seek multiple providers.
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