Patient punctuality and clinic performance: observations from an academic-based private practice pain centre: a prospective quality improvement study.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to examine the effects of an intervention to alter patient unpunctuality. The major hypothesis was that the intervention will change the distribution of patient unpunctuality by decreasing patient tardiness and increasing patient earliness. DESIGN: Prospective Quality Improvement. SETTING: Specialty Pain Clinic in suburban Baltimore, Maryland, USA. PARTICIPANTS: The patient population ranged in age from 18 to 93 years. All patients presenting to the clinic during the study period were included in the study. The average monthly volume was 86.2 (SD=13) patients. A total of 1500 patient visits were included in this study. INTERVENTIONS: We tracked appointment times and patient arrival times at an ambulatory pain clinic. An intervention was made in which patients were informed that tardy patients would not be seen and would be rescheduled. This policy was enforced over a 12-month period. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: The distribution of patient unpunctuality was developed preintervention and at 12 months after implementation. Distribution parameters were used as inputs to a discrete event simulation to determine effects of the change in patient unpunctuality on clinic delay. RESULTS: Data regarding patient unpunctuality were gathered by direct observation before and after implementation of the intervention. The mean unpunctuality changed from -20.5 min (110 observations, SD=1.7) preintervention to -23.2 (169, 1.2) at 1 month after the intervention, -23.8 min (69, 1.8) at 6 months and -25.0 min (71, 1.2) after 1 year. The unpunctuality 12 months after initiation of the intervention was significantly different from that prior to the intervention (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Physicians and staff are able to alter patient arrival patterns to reduce patient unpunctuality. Reducing tardiness improves some measures of clinic performance, but may not always improve waiting times. Accommodating early arriving patients does serve to improve clinic performance.

Moving beyond the limitations of the visual analog scale for measuring pain: novel use of the general labeled magnitude scale in a clinical setting.

OBJECTIVE: Quantifying pain intensity is challenging, particularly for patients with chronic pain. The visual analog scale (VAS) is limited by ceiling effects that often leave patients with no ability to quantify worsening pain. The goal of this study was to determine whether the general Labeled Magnitude Scale (gLMS) can be feasibly used to measure pain clinically while overcoming limitations of the VAS. DESIGN: Eighty patients (mean age, 53.7 yrs) scheduled for evaluation of a painful complaint were asked to rate their current pain using the gLMS and the VAS. The time necessary to administer the gLMS was recorded to determine feasibility. The difference in rating between the two scales (VAS and gLMS) was the main outcome measure. RESULTS: After scaling and rounding off the gLMS scores for direct comparison, it was found that the gLMS scores were significantly lower than the corresponding VAS scores by a mean of 1.78 (P < 0.001). The mean time to administer the gLMS was 2.66 mins. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that the gLMS has great potential and can be feasibly used to measure pain intensity clinically. The gLMS scores were consistently lower than the VAS scores, thus reducing the ceiling effect and allowing range at the high end of the scale for rating worsening pain.

How process analysis could improve the implementation of spinal cord stimulation treatment for chronic pain.

SUMMARY Spinal cord stimulation has been in clinical use for the treatment of chronic pain for over four decades. Since the initial use by Norman Shealy, the indications for its use have increased steadily over the decades to include neuropathic pain owing to failed back surgery syndrome, complex regional pain syndrome and painful diabetic peripheral neuropathies. To date, the precise mechanism of action of spinal cord stimulation remains unclear, yet it is still one of the most expensive interventional treatment modalities available in pain medicine with increasing application across the world. Given the worldwide focus on cost-effective care, there is an opportunity to focus on process analysis as a mechanism for optimizing the operations within and between all specialties engaged in the provision of care in pain medicine. Here, we propose a process analysis approach to model, measure and improve the delivery of disease-based care to enhance effective treatment with a costly modality. Systems-based process analysis is not widely utilized in pain medicine, and there is a limited body of evidence for its application. The purpose of this article is to generate interest in the discipline of process analysis in pain medicine, as it has found value in other healthcare settings and industries. We mention the applicability across countries and specialties that we hope will increase the awareness of this concept and possibly generate interest in further examination by investigators that will lead to the development of highly efficient and effective healthcare delivery processes and systems across the globe.