Development and Validation of a Risk Score to Identify Patients at High Risk for Opioid-Related Adverse Drug Events

BACKGROUND: Opioid-related adverse drug events (ORADEs) are common causes of hospitalization and increased health care costs. OBJECTIVES: To (a) estimate rates of specific adverse drug events (ADEs) among gastrointestinal (GI) surgery patients receiving postoperative opioids; (b) examine the utility of a risk-scoring model in categorizing patients at high risk of experiencing ORADEs; and (c) quantify potential clinical/economic benefits of targeting high-risk GI surgical patients for opioid-sparing regimens in terms of hospitalization cost, length of stay (LOS), and 30-day readmission rates. METHODS: Using a retrospective design based on an administrative database, patients with an inpatient surgical procedure between January 1, 2010, and December 31, 2010, were included. GI surgical patients aged greater than 18 years followed from admission through 30 days postdischarge were characterized as high or low risk using clinical/demographic characteristics and were evaluated for several outcomes. Using multiv...