Ten hospitals reduce opioid prescriptions for children with appendicitis through a quality improvement initiative

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CHICAGO: As public awareness of opioid abuse in the U.S. has grown, so too have efforts to reduce–or even eliminate–the use of opioids after various types of operations. A regional quality improvement (QI) effort to reduce opioid prescriptions in children who have undergone an appendectomy has led to an almost 80% reduction in prescribing. The study involved implementing a standardized prescribing protocol that aimed to significantly curtail opioid prescriptions for these young patients.