Statewide Implementation of Postoperative Opioid Prescribing Guidelines

To the Editor: Opioids are widely overprescribed after surgery. 1 Leftover medication is often diverted into the community, contributing to the opioid epidemic. The lack of evidence on which to base prescribing practices after surgery may hinder efforts to reduce overprescribing. In this study, we developed and disseminated postoperative prescribing guidelines and measured the effect on prescribing in a statewide hospital collaborative.