Really interesting article.
In a nutshell, they greatly reduced the amount of delivered narcotic AND got better pain scores overall by just going from IV to subQ delivery... which was the standard practice 25 - 30 years ago...which is before the 'crisis'.
Makes hugely logical sense if you think about the physical aspects of each process.
Perhaps medicine just got hooked on bigger better faster more?
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/article-abstract/2681060?_ga=2.222345170.893479469.1555695690-367151978.1555695690