• Jacqueline A Carrico, Katharine Mahoney, Kristen M Raymond, Logan Mims, Peter C Smith, Joseph T Sakai, Susan K Mikulich-Gilbertson, Christian J Hopfer, and Karsten Bartels.
• From The Department of Anesthesiology, University of Colorado, Aurora, CO (JAC, KM, KB); Department of Psychiatry, Division of Substance Dependence, University of Colorado, Aurora (KMR, JTS, SKMG, CJH); Department of Family Medicine, University of Colorado, Aurora (LM, PCS); School of Public Health, Department of Biostatistics & Informatics, University of Colorado, Aurora (SKMG).
• J Am Board Fam Med. 2018 Nov 1; 31 (6): 941943941-943.

PurposeThe opioid epidemic in the United States is an ongoing public health concern. Health care institutions use standardized patient satisfaction surveys to assess the patient experience and some offer incentives to their providers based on the results. We hypothesized that providers who report being incentivized based on patient satisfaction surveys are more likely to report an impact of such surveys on their opioid prescribing practices.MethodsWe developed a 23-item survey instrument to assess the self-perceived impact of patient satisfaction surveys on opioid prescribing practices in primary care and the potential impact of institutional incentives. The survey was emailed to all 1404 members of the Colorado Academy of Family Physicians.ResultsThe response rate to the online survey was 10.4% (n = 146). Clinical indications for which responders prescribe opioids included acute pain (93%), cancer pain (85%), and chronic nonmalignant pain (72%). Among physicians using patient satisfaction surveys, incentivized physicians reported at least a slight impact on opioid prescribing 3 times more often than physicians who were not incentivized (36% vs 12%, P = .004).ConclusionsEfforts to improve patient satisfaction may have potentially untoward effects on providers' opioid prescribing behaviors. Our results suggest a need to further study the impact of provider incentive plans that are based on patient satisfaction scores.© Copyright 2018 by the American Board of Family Medicine.

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