New-starts-of-opioids-prescriptions-filled - Health Quality Ontario (HQO)

INDICATOR NAME

Name

New starts of opioid prescriptions filled

Alternate Name

New starts of opioids prescriptions filled in Ontario

INDICATOR DESCRIPTION

Description

This indicator measures the rate of prescriptions for opioids filled for people who have not filled a prescription for opioids in six months, per 10,000 population.

Indicator Status

Active

HQO Reporting tool/product

Public reporting

Dimension

Effective

Type

Outcome

DEFINITION AND SOURCE INFORMATION

Unit of Measurement

Rate

Calculation Methods

Numerator divided by denominator times 10,000

Numerator including inclusion/exclusion

Number of opioid prescriptions filled in the reporting period that are considered “new starts”

For a person to be considered as newly started on an opioid, they had to have not been prescribed an opioid to manage pain in the six months prior to the prescription.

Exclusions:

Excludes people who received a palliative care service in the year prior;
Excludes prescriptions for opioids for cough, antidiarrheals and opioid agonist therapy

Denominator including inclusion/exclusion

The Ontario population for the year

Data Source

Narcotics Monitoring System (NMS)

Data provided to HQO by

Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES)

Reported Levels of comparability /stratifications (defined)

Region, Time

OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION

Comments Detailed

An individual could have more than one new start in a given calendar year since the lookback period for a new start was 6 months