Improving Pain Management for Older Adults in the Emergency Department (ED)

Improving Management of Acute Pain for Older Adults in the ED Setting

The goals of this exploratory study are to determine the feasibility of integrating electronic clinical decision support into routine clinical pain care for adults in the ED setting and gather data on whether or not such clinical decision support is effective in improving pain care outcomes in the ED. The use of an electronic pain care alert (ePCA) prompting doctors to provide acute pain care for adult patients with complaints of severe abdominal pain will be compared to patients seen by clinicians with routine ED care.

Hypothesis: The ePCA will improve the quality of acute pain care for patients.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Abdominal Pain Care
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: ePCA and Pain keycept intervention

Detailed Description

This study will compare the effectiveness of the combined electronic pain care alert (ePCA) and "pain keycepts" (i.e., embedded pain care concepts/algorithms within clinician documentation templates) intervention versus routine care on acute pain care outcomes for geriatric abdominal pain patients in severe pain.

Hypothesis: The ePCA and pain keycept will improve the quality of acute pain care (i.e., Geriatric pain care quality indicators that include improved pain evaluation and pain treatment (better pain assessment documentation, earlier administration of analgesic medication, greater reduction of pain levels)) for geriatric abdominal pain patients in severe pain.

Study Design: This is an exploratory randomized trial of the intervention versus usual clinical care (control).

1. (Pre-intervention abdominal pain care baseline): Prior to any implementation of the ePCA, baseline Epic process of pain care measures for abdominal pain patients will be collected for a 4-month period. Study variables will be collected to determine baseline patient-related and abdominal pain care data. Baseline data will be used for two purposes. To determine if there: 1.) is an improvement in the quality of pain care received post-intervention and 2.) are treatment diffusion effects with the control (routine care) physicians who do not receive ePCAs (i.e., after the intervention period has commenced, are differences in process of pain care outcomes found for the control group versus pre-intervention baseline group).
2. This will be a randomized comparative effectiveness trial gathering pilot data on the efficacy of the ePCA to improve with ED pain care for adults with severe abdominal pain. To study the effect of the ePCA intervention, the alert will be randomized to RESIDENT physicians, who will be randomly assigned to groups designated in the Epic EMR (electronic medical record) (i.e., the alert will be triggered for some residents, and not triggered for other residents (usual care) for the entire study period). Both groups will have equal privileges in all ways (i.e., documentation and ordering) except that BPAs will or will not be integrated for intervention vs. control. Investigators will be blinded to randomization assignments and subjects (resident physicians) will be blinded to study aims. Residents will always remain in their initial randomized arm.

The unit of analysis will be the ED visit. To study the impact of the ePCA on pain care outcomes, pilot data will be collected with prospective survey from abdominal pain patients, automated data reports from Epic and MSDW, and medical record review. Eligible subjects enrolled and consented will be surveyed at discharge from the ED with regard to pain scores, desire for analgesic medication, and satisfaction with pain care. While evidence from the Surgical and Emergency Medicine (EM) literature indicate early analgesia does not obscure clinical diagnoses, not result in diagnostic delays, nor impedes informed consent, some clinicians may withhold analgesia due to the continued misguided belief that analgesia may mask diagnostic findings or invalidate consent. For this reason, data will also be collected of whether or not the patient required surgical consultation.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 4693
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • New York
    • New York, New York, United States, 10029
      • Icahn School of Mediciine at Mount Sinai

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 20 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

Resident physicians will be included if:

• they provide care to adult patients in the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai's ED.

Patients will be enrolled for survey and/or medical record review if

• All adult (≥20 years) patients seen in the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai's ED
• with severe pain (≥10 on a verbal pain scale of 0-10, 0=none, 10=severe)
• and chief complaints of abdominal pain will be eligible for retrospective and/or medical record review and prospective survey at ED discharge.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Triple

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: ePCA and Pain keycept intervention; Study designed ePCA and pain keycept interventions are embedded in electronic medical record during patient ED visit	Other: ePCA and Pain keycept intervention; Study designed ePCA and pain keycept interventions are embedded in electronic medical record during patient ED visit.
No Intervention: Usual Care; No study designed ePCA and pain keycept interventions are embedded in electronic medical record during patient ED visit

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Analgesia order	pain care outcomes - analgesic medication ordering status	at ED visit
Analgesia Administration	pain care outcomes - Times from ED arrival to analgesic medication administration	at ED visit

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Patient Pain Care Satisfaction	Eligible subjects will be surveyed at ED discharge with regard to pain scores, desire for analgesic medication and satisfaction with pain care.	at ED visit

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Ula Y Hwang, MD, MPH, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: June 1, 2011
• Primary Completion (Actual): August 1, 2015
• Study Completion (Actual): August 1, 2015

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: September 10, 2013
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 10, 2013
• First Posted (Estimate): October 14, 2013

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimate): November 5, 2015
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 4, 2015
• Last Verified: November 1, 2015

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: emergency; abdominal pain; clinical decision support; Pain care
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Pain; Neurologic Manifestations; Signs and Symptoms, Digestive; Abdominal Pain
• Other Study ID Numbers: GCO 10-1414; 5R21AG040734-02 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)