Primary Care Shared Medical Appointment for Pain Management: A Pilot Program.

Area of Science:

• Pain Management
• Healthcare Delivery Models
• Opioid Crisis Solutions

Background:

• Effective, non-addictive chronic pain management strategies are crucial for addressing the opioid crisis.
• Shared Medical Appointments (SMAs) represent a group-based clinical care model involving multidisciplinary healthcare teams for comprehensive patient management.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of a pain management SMA on opioid use and patient behaviors.
• To assess the effectiveness of an SMA in a clinical setting for Veterans experiencing chronic pain.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective chart review of 16 Veterans participating in a pain management SMA.
• Analysis of quantitative and qualitative data from electronic medical records using descriptive statistics.

Main Results:

• A reduction in opioid medication dosage was observed six months post-SMA.
• Participants received referrals for non-pharmacological treatments and added non-opioid pain medications.
• Veterans gained knowledge on pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic pain management modalities through didactic and experiential education.

Conclusions:

• The pain management SMA facilitated greater access to pain management specialists.
• This model provided Veterans with a holistic approach to managing chronic pain, reducing reliance on opioids.