Variation in receipt of opioids by pediatric oncology patients who died in children's hospitals.
BACKGROUND
Opioids are a cornerstone of palliation of pain. We sought to assess variation in opioid prescription during the last week of life among a cohort of pediatric oncology patients who died while hospitalized.


METHODS
We used detailed hospital administrative data from the Pediatric Health Information System (PHIS) regarding 1,466 subjects 0-24 years of age who were treated at 33 hospitals between 2001 and 2005.


RESULTS
Among the 1,466 subjects hospitalized at the time of their death, 56% received opioids every day during the hospitalized portion of their last week of life, while 44% did not. This proportion varied substantially across hospitals (range 0-90.5%). After multivariate adjustment for individual-level characteristics, the hospital-level effect on the odds of continuous prescription of opioids during the hospitalized portion of the last 7 days of life continued to vary significantly among hospitals, accounting for 10.5% of the variance in the receipt of daily opioid (P < 0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
Opioid prescription during the hospitalized portion of the last week of life varies substantially among hospitals, even after adjustment for clinical characteristics of the patients. The reasons for this significant variation, especially the component explained by hospital-level and not patient-level factors, warrant more scrutiny.
Orsey
Andrea D
AD
Division of Hematology/Oncology, Connecticut Children's Medical Center, Hartford, Connecticut 06106, USA. aorsey@ccmckids.org
Belasco
Jean B
JB
Ellenberg
Jonas H
JH
Schmitz
Kathryn H
KH
Feudtner
Chris
C
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000701:Analgesics, Opioid / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004363:Drug Utilization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D017052:Hospital Mortality; D006776:Hospitals, Pediatric; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007902:Length of Stay; D008297:Male; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000401:mortality; D010146:Pain / Q000188:drug therapy*; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D055656:Prescriptions; D015996:Survival Rate; D013727:Terminal Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D055815:Young Adult
D000701:Analgesics, Opioid