Medication Initiation, Patient-directed Discharges, and Hospital Readmissions Before and After Implementing Guidelines for Opioid Withdrawal Management

A guideline to facilitate generalist management of opioid withdrawal in hospitalized patients improved the process of care, increasing the use of OAT and decreasing workload on the psychiatry consult services. Although increased inpatient OAT has been previously shown to decrease PDD, in this study PDD and readmission rates did not improve. Guidelines may be insufficient to impact these outcomes.