Opioid and Naloxone Prescribing Following Insertion of Prompts in the Electronic Health Record to Encourage Compliance With California State Opioid Law

Abstract

The US is in the middle of an opioid crisis.¹ Most people with opioid addiction or dependency were first exposed through a pain management prescription.² Despite ongoing efforts to curb the crisis, fatal overdoses continue to increase.³ Government officials, health care practitioners, and investigators have been searching for methods to better regulate opioid prescriptions.^4,5 The State of California passed Assembly Bill (AB) 2760, effective January 1, 2019, to address the opioid crisis. This law mandates prescribers to offer naloxone, an opioid antagonist,^6,7 or another comparable drug approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, with the opioid prescription⁸ to patients who are at high risk for opioid overdose (eMethods in the Supplement). The law further requires prescribers to educate these patients and their caregivers about overdose prevention and the use of naloxone. By encouraging greater knowledge and accessibility of naloxone among patients at high risk of overdose, AB 2760 serves as an overdose prevention strategy.