• Stephanie Davies, John Quintner, Richard Parsons, Luke Parkitny, Paul Knight, Elizabeth Forrester, Mary Roberts, Carl Graham, Eric Visser, Tracy Antill, Tanya Packer, and Stephan A Schug.
• Pain Medicine Unit, Fremantle Hospital, Alma Street, Fremantle, Western Australia. stephanie.davies@health.wa.gov.au
• Pain Med. 2011 Jan 1;12(1):59-71.

ObjectiveTo assess the effects of preclinic group education sessions and system redesign on tertiary pain medicine units and patient outcomes.DesignProspective cohort study.SettingTwo public hospital multidisciplinary pain medicine units.PatientsPeople with persistent pain.InterventionsA system redesign from a "traditional" model (initial individual medical appointments) to a model that delivers group education sessions prior to individual appointments. Based on Patient Triage Questionnaires patients were scheduled to attend Self-Training Educative Pain Sessions (STEPS), a two day eight hour group education program, followed by optional patient-initiated clinic appointments.Outcome MeasuresNumber of patients completing STEPS who subsequently requested individual outpatient clinic appointment(s); wait-times; unit cost per new patient referred; recurrent health care utilization; patient satisfaction; Global Perceived Impression of Change (GPIC); and utilized pain management strategies.ResultsFollowing STEPS 48% of attendees requested individual outpatient appointments. Wait times reduced from 105.6 to 16.1 weeks at one pain unit and 37.3 to 15.2 weeks at the second. Unit cost per new patient appointed reduced from $1,805 Australian Dollars (AUD) to AUD$541 (for STEPS). At 3 months, patients scored their satisfaction with "the treatment received for their pain" more positively than at baseline (change score=0.88; P=0.0003), GPIC improved (change score=0.46; P<0.0001) and mean number of active strategies utilized increased by 4.12 per patient (P=0.0004).ConclusionsThe introduction of STEPS was associated with reduced wait-times and costs at public pain medicine units and increased both the use of active pain management strategies and patient satisfaction.Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

28 keywords...

hide…