QuickStats: Percentage of Emergency Department Visits for Pain at Which Opioids Were Given or Prescribed, by Geographic Region of the Hospital — United States, 2005–2017

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• Based on a sample of visits to emergency departments (EDs) in noninstitutional general and short-stay hospitals, exclusive of federal, military, and Veterans Administration hospitals, located in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Pain-related visits were defined using up to three reasons for visit coded according to the National Center for Health Statistics Reason for Visit Classification (https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_02/sr02_078.pdf) and grouped using an algorithm from https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/1149438.

† Visits with at least one opioid among up to eight medications listed as given in the ED or prescribed at discharge. Opioids were defined using the Cerner Multum third-level therapeutic category codes for narcotic analgesics (60) and narcotic analgesic combinations (191). Cold and cough products containing opioids and buprenorphine products indicated for conditions other than pain were excluded.

§ Northeast: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Midwest: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. South: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. West: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.

The percentage of ED visits for pain at which an opioid was given or prescribed increased from 37.4% in 2005 to 43.1% in 2010 and then decreased to 30.9% in 2017. A similar pattern was observed in all four regions. Percentages for the Northeast were lower than for the nation as a whole for all years analyzed. In 2017, the percentage was 21.1% in the Northeast, compared with 32.0% in the Midwest, 32.0% in the South, and 34.7% in the West.

Source: National Center for Health Statistics. National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, 2005–2017. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/ahcd/ahcd_questionnaires.htm.

Reported by: Susan M. Schappert, MA, sschappert@cdc.gov, 301-458-4480; Loredana Santo, MD.

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