Recently Published: Impact of an Electronic Pain and Opioid Risk Assessment Program: Are There Improvements in Patient Encounters and Clinic Notes?

Recently Published: Impact of an Electronic Pain and Opioid Risk Assessment Program: Are There Improvements in Patient Encounters and Clinic Notes?

The American Academy of Pain Medicine recently published an article by researchers at Inflexxion Inc., Newton-Wellesley Hospital’s Pain Management Center, Brigham and Women’s Hospital Pain Management Center, and at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, Family Medicine, that discusses the impact of PainCAS, a comprehensive electronic self-report pain and opioid risk assessment system, on clinical documentation and patient/provider communication.

Highlights from the study concluded that:

• Significant differences in favor of an electronic pain assessment condition were found
• Preliminary results indicate an electronic pain assessment program increases documentation of key elements of pain patient information in the medical record and improved discussion of substance abuse issues in the patient-physician encounter
• Standardization of assessments can lead to long-term improved quality of care

For more information about this study, please see the abstract below.

To obtain the full article, click here.

Objective. A comprehensive electronic self-report assessment, called PainCAS® (Clinical Assessment System), was developed and implemented in three clinics. PainCAS captures demographic information, pain assessment, quality-of-life variables, and contains validated, electronic versions of screeners for risk of aberrant opioid-related behaviors (the SOAPP and COMM). This investigation sought to determine the impact of PainCAS on documentation of pain and opioid risk evaluations. Exploratory hypotheses examined changes in the content of the patient- provider interaction and any impact on outcome.

Methods. In study 1, chart reviews were conducted between pain patients who completed the electronic program (N = 89) and controls who represented standard of care (N = 120). In study 2, two groups of chronic pain patients (treatment-as-usual Control condition = 75, PainCAS Experimental condition = 72) were interviewed after completing their index clinic visit and completed mailed questionnaires 3 months later.

Results. Results revealed significantly more key, pain-relevant chart elements documented in charts of patients who completed the PainCAS than those using a traditional paper questionnaire (Study 1; <0.001). In Study 2, the Experimental group reported more discussion about legal issues, substance use history, and medication safety compared with the Control group (p < 0.05). Satisfaction questionnaire responses supported provider and patient perceived benefit from using PainCAS. However, as expected, no differences were found between conditions on outcome measures of pain, mood, and function.

Conclusions. Results indicate that use of the PainCAS electronic pain assessment improves documentation of chart elements in clinic notes and is associated with increased discussion of key, pain-relevant topics during the clinical visit.

Originally Published in Pain Medicine April, 2016 PMID: 27102526
Butler SF, Zacharoff KL, Charity S, et al.  Impact of an Electronic Pain and Opioid Risk Assessment Program: Are There Improvements in Patient Encounters and Clinic Notes? [published online 20 April 2016]. Pain Med. 2016. PMID: 27102526