Project STEP: Implementing the Veterans Health Administration's Stepped Care Model of Pain Management.

Objective: The "stepped care model of pain management" (SCM-PM) prioritizes the role of primary care providers in optimizing pharmacological management and timely and equitable access to patient-centered, evidence-based nonpharmacological approaches, when indicated. Over the past several years, the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) has supported implementation of SCM-PM, but few data exist regarding changes in pain care resulting from implementation. We examined trends in prescribing and referral practices of primary care providers with hypotheses of decreased opioid prescribing, increased nonopioid prescribing, and increased referrals to specialty care for nonpharmacological services. Design: An initiative was designed to foster implementation and systematic evaluation of the SCM-PM over a five-year period at the VA Connecticut Healthcare System (VACHS) while fostering collaborative, partnered initiatives to promote organizational improvements in the delivery of pain care. Subjects: Participants were veterans receiving care at VACHS with at least one pain intensity rating ≥4/10 over the course of the study period (7/2008-6/2013). Methods: We used electronic health record data to examine changes in indicators of pain care including pharmacy and health care utilization data. Results: We observed hypothesized changes in long-term opioid and nonopioid analgesic prescribing and increased utilization of nonpharmacological treatments such as physical therapy, occupational therapy, and clinical health psychology. Conclusions: Through a multifaceted comprehensive implementation approach, primary care providers demonstrated increases in guideline-concordant pain care practices. Findings suggest that engagement of interdisciplinary teams and partnerships to promote organizational improvements is a useful strategy to increase the use of integrated, multimodal pain care for veterans, consistent with VHA's SCM-PM.

Hearing new voices: registered nurses and health technicians experience caring for chronic pain patients in primary care clinics.

Recent national estimates from the U.S. reveal that as many as one-third of all Americans experience chronic pain resulting in high prevalence rates of visits to primary care clinics (PCC). Indeed, chronic pain appears to be an emerging global health problem. Research has largely ignored the perspective of PCC staff other than physicians in providing care for patients with chronic pain. We wanted to gain insights from the experiences of Registered Nurses (RNs) and Health Technicians (HTs) who care for this patient population. Krippendorff's method for content analysis was used to analyze comments written in an open-ended survey from fifty-seven primary care clinic staff (RNs-N=27 and HTs-N=30) respondents. This represented an overall response rate of 75%. Five themes emerged related to the experience of RNs and HTs caring for patients with chronic pain: 1) Primacy of Medications and Accompanying Clinical Quandaries; 2) System Barriers; 3) Dealing with Failure; 4) Primacy of Patient Centered Care; and 5) Importance of Team Based Care. This study demonstrates that nursing staff provide patient-centered care, recognize the importance of their role within an interdisciplinary team and can offer valuable insight about the care of patients with chronic pain. This study provides insight into strategies that can mitigate barriers to chronic pain management while sustaining those aspects that RNs and HTs view as essential for improving patient care for this vulnerable population in PCCs.

Development and application of an electronic health record information extraction tool to assess quality of pain management in primary care.

Chronic pain is one of the most common presenting problems in primary care. Standards and guidelines have been developed for managing chronic pain, but it is unclear whether primary care providers routinely engage in guideline-concordant care. The purpose of this study is to develop a tool for extracting information about the quality of pain care in the primary care setting. Quality indicators were developed through review of the literature, input from an interdisciplinary panel of pain experts, and pilot testing. A comprehensive coding manual was developed, and inter-rater reliability was established. The final tool consists of 12 dichotomously scored indicators assessing quality and documentation of pain care in three domains: assessment, treatment, and reassessment. Presence of indicators varied widely. The tool is reliable and can be utilized to gather valuable information about pain management in the primary care setting.

Implementation of the veterans health administration national pain management strategy.

Since its introduction in 1998, the VHA National Pain Management Strategy has introduced and implemented a series of plans for promoting systems improvements in pain care. We present the milestones of VHA efforts in pain management as reflected by the work of the Strategy. This includes the development of the Strategy and its current structure as well as a review of important initiatives such as "pain as the fifth vital sign" and the stepped care model of pain management.