Table 1.
Characteristics of Patients Receiving Short-Acting Opioid Prescriptions and of Their Providers at the Two Study Sites, January 1, 2015–December 31, 2018
| N (%)1 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Weill Cornell Medicine | Institute for Family Health | |
| Total patients | 18,218 (100.0) | 3895 (100.0) |
| Number female | 9139 (49.4) | 2705 (68.6) |
| Number white | 3562 (19.2)4 | 1639 (41.6) |
| Number commercially insured2 | 7638 (77.2) | 2524 (25.6) |
| Number Medicaid | 149 (1.5) | 4261 (44.2) |
| Number Medicare | 2106 (21.3) | 2866 (29.0) |
| Number uninsured | 0 (0.0) | 110 (1.0) |
| Total prescribers | 585 (100.0) | 236 (100.0) |
| Attending physician (MD or DO) | 417 (71.3) | 192 (81.4) |
| Resident or fellow | 13 (2.2) | 45 (19.1) |
| Advanced practice nurse (FNP/ANP) or PA | 103 (17.6) | 39 (16.53) |
| Prescriber specialty | ||
| Internal medicine3 | 72 (12.31) | 4 (1.7) |
| Family practice | 0 (0) | 162 (68.6) |
| Other medical | 242 (41.38) | 70 (26.9) |
| Surgical | 271 (46.32) | 0 (0) |
| Total new short-acting opioid prescriptions | 18,518 (100.0) | 3943 (100.0) |
| Internal medicine | 1666 (9.0) | 160 (4.1) |
| Family practice | 0 (0) | 3413 (86.5) |
| Other medical | 6170 (32.3) | 370 (9.4) |
| Surgical | 10,682 (57.7) | 0 (0) |
1Counts of patients and providers reflect unique patients and providers even though each patient and provider could appear in the data set more than once
2For simplicity, the distribution of insurance types reflects the last covered visit in 2018
3At the academic medical center, “internal medicine” includes primary care as well as internal medicine subspecialties such as cardiology and endocrinology. “Other medical” includes emergency medicine, rehabilitation medicine and physical therapy, psychiatry, dialysis, and (non-interventional) radiology
4At the academic medical center, 59.9% of patients (11,091) had unknown race