Distribution of Medication Disposal Packets - Acute Opioid Prescribing

Overview

Many prescription opioids following surgery are left unused and are at risk of being misused or diverted. Encouraging proper disposal is important, yet motivating this behavior remains challenging as patients must understand the risks of opioids, the benefits of disposal, and identify opportunities and places to dispose of them safely. Alternative disposal techniques can improve disposal rates but may be lost or forgotten. Applying behavioral economics techniques may lower the barriers and promote disposal. The objective is to test the effect of a specifically timed, mailed, at-home kit on disposal rates following surgery.

A pragmatic, cluster-randomized quality improvement study embedded in an existing automated, post-operative text messaging program to capture patient-reported outcomes (e.g., pain score, opioid use, ability to manage pain) and disposal as part of usual care. It was approved by the University of Pennsylvania Institutional Review Board with a waiver of informed consent. All patients, 18 years or older, undergoing an orthopedic or urologic procedure and prescribed an opioid were approached and consented via text messaging. Patients without access to a text message capable device or non-English speaking were excluded. Participants were block randomized to usual care or a mailed at-home disposal packet. Usual care consisted of a text message hyperlink to nearby disposal locations. Intervention participants were mailed an at-home disposal packet timed to arrive between post-operative days four and seven based on prior data collection on reported use. The disposal packet (DisposeRx Inc.) contains a powder that sequesters unused opioids in a polymer gel. Patients self-reported disposal via the automated system.