TABLE 1—

Patient Characteristics for Eligible Ambulatory Surgery Patients Who Returned Unused Opioids and Did Not Return Unused Opioids: Rural US Veterans Affairs Hospital, 2017 to 2018

	Returned Unused Opioids (n = 171)	Did Not Return (n = 407)	P
Mean age, y	64.9	59.0	< .001
Male, %	91.8	92.9	.73
Preoperative opioid status, %			< .001
Opioid naive	94.7	82.4
Acute exposure (at least 1 opioid in previous 6 mo)	5.3	17.6
Expected pain, %			.9
Minor	3.5	3.7
Moderate	75.3	72.8
Severe	21.2	23.5
Prescriber level, %			.7
Attending	12.9	15.4
Resident	63.5	59.3
Physician assistant/nurse practitioner	23.5	25.2
Average MME prescribed	117.7	122.9	.56
Minor pain	65.0	85.7	.38
Moderate pain	90.9	99.7	.2
Severe pain	218.9	201.3	.5

Note. MME = milligram morphine equivalent.