• Ajay S Unnithan and Brooke A Chidgey.
• Department of Anesthesiology, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
• Pain Med. 2021 Nov 26; 22 (11): 2566-2574.

ObjectiveThis study sought to evaluate if actively informing new chronic pain patients about treatment options and setting realistic expectations for care, through the use of a pre-visit informational handout prior to the first clinic visit, improved patient satisfaction with subsequently proposed treatment plans.MethodsThe study was divided into two 3-month periods. During the first 3 months, with our current pain clinic practices in place, new patients (n = 147) were given surveys to establish a baseline of patient satisfaction with treatment plans proposed on their first visit. During the second 3 months, a different group of new patients (n = 156) was given a detailed informational handout which described our clinic's multimodal approach to pain management and therapeutic expectations prior to their visit with a provider. Patient satisfaction with subsequently proposed treatment plans was then assessed and compared with the baseline group.ResultsThe average patient satisfaction score for the group of patients given the informational handout was 4.21 (on a 5-point Likert scale), compared to an average score of 3.25 for the baseline group (P < .0001, unpaired t-test). 77.6% of patients given the informational handout said their proposed treatment plan met their expectations compared to 46.3% of patients in the baseline group (χ2= 31.61, two-tailed P < .0001).ConclusionsPatient satisfaction with proposed chronic pain treatment plans was improved when clinic approaches to pain were explicitly outlined and therapeutic expectations were clearly established in the form of an informational handout at the outset of the first visit.© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Academy of Pain Medicine. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

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