QuickStats: Percentage of Emergency Department Visits for Pain* at Which Opioids^† Were Given or Prescribed, by Geographic Region^§ of the Hospital — United States, 2005–2017

* Based on a sample of visits to emergency departments (EDs) in noninstitutional general and short-stay hospitals, exclusive of federal, military, and Veterans Administration hospitals, located in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Pain-related visits were defined using up to three reasons for visit coded according to the National Center for Health Statistics Reason for Visit Classification (https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_02/sr02_078.pdf) and grouped using an algorithm from https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/1149438.

^† Visits with at least one opioid among up to eight medications listed as given in the ED or prescribed at discharge. Opioids were defined using the Cerner Multum third-level therapeutic category codes for narcotic analgesics (60) and narcotic analgesic combinations (191). Cold and cough products containing opioids and buprenorphine products indicated for conditions other than pain were excluded.

^§ Northeast: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Midwest: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. South: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. West: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.