Table 1 Characteristics of prescribers by PSS adoption status at PSS initiation
|  | PSS innovators (n = 228) | Early PSS adopters (n = 1062) | PSS non-adoptersa (n = 12847) |
|---|---|---|---|
Practice characteristics | N (%) | ||
 Primary HA practice location | |||
  Interior | 14 (6.1%) | 165 (15.5%) | 1938 (15.1%) |
  Fraser | 31 (13.6%) | 199 (18.7%) | 3178 (24.7%) |
  Vancouver Coastal | 138 (60.5%) | 387 (36.4%) | 4392 (34.2%) |
  Vancouver Island | 40 (17.5%) | 215 (20.2%) | 2258 (17.6%) |
  Northern |  < 10b | 86 (8.1%) | 590 (4.6%) |
  Missing (8 or 9) |  < 10b | 10 (0.9%) | 491 (3.8%) |
 Prescriber speciality | |||
  Nurse practitioner | 32 (14.4%) | 88 (8.3%) | 516 (4.0%) |
  General practice | 175 (76.8%) | 726 (68.4%) | 7005 (54.5%) |
  Psychiatry |  ≤ 10b | 109 (10.3%) | 530 (4.1%) |
  Known but other specialties |  ≤ 10b | 68 (6.4%) | 3411 (26.6%) |
  Unknown (physician) |  ≤ 10b | 71 (6.7%) | 1385 (10.8%) |
 OAT prescriber | 207 (90.8%) | 799 (75.2%) | 3838 (29.9%) |
 Discontinued as of end of follow-up | 62 (27.2%) | 673 (63.4%) | ------- |
Network characteristics | Median (1st quartile-3rd quartile) | ||
 Number of connected physicians | 29 (17–49) | 16 (9–27) | 3 (1–8) |
 Total sum of all shared clients | 73 (40–118) | 22 (11–47) | 4 (1–9) |
 Proportion of connected physicians that prescribed PSS | 0.34 (0.18–0.46) | 0.38 (0.22–0.59) | 0.13 (0–0.33) |
 Weighted proportion of PSS prescribers | 0.50 (0.26–0.65) | 0.44 (0.25–0.68) | 0.11 (0–0.33) |
 Proportion of connected physicians that are also connected | 0.15 (0.10–0.22) | 0.19 (0.11–0.31) | 0.14 (0–0.36) |
 Number of additional physicians their average clients saw | 1.2 (0.9–1.7) | 1.1 (0.8–1.8) | 1.0 (0.5–1.5) |
 Degree centrality | 0.20 (0.12–0.30) | 0.08 (0.05–0.03) | 0.02 (0.01–0.04) |
SUD prescribing history | |||
 Years since first billing record for a client with SUD | 8.2 (4.3–17.2) | 7.9 (3.1–18.2) | 10.0 (3.7–21.7) |
SUD client caseload | |||
 SUD client load | 63 (34–99) | 21 (8–43) | 3 (1–9) |
 Mean clients’ years since SUD diagnosis | 12.2 (10.4–13.9) | 11.8 (9.9–13.6) | 12.0 (8.5–15.0) |
 Treated a client with a COVID-19 diagnosis |  < 10b | 79 (7.4%) | 386 (3.0%) |
 Percent clients with a CCI of 1 or higher | 8.7 (5.1–13.1) | 7.7 (2.4–14.3) | 0 (0–21.1) |
 Percent clients with a CDS over 4 | 1.3 (0–2.9) | 0 (0–2.9) | 0 (0–0) |
 Percentage of clients prescribed benzos | 10.0 (5.6–15.9) | 14.3 (6.5–24.2) | 0 (0–20.4) |
 Percentage of clients accessing social assistance during past 12 months | 77.2 (62.1–84.4) | 51.8 (36.1–71.4) | 20.8 (0–50.0) |
 Percentage of clients experienced an overdose 12 months prior | 1.7 (0–3.8) | 0 (0–3.0) | 0 (0–0) |