A toolkit to implement opioid quality improvement efforts in primary care: Findings from a mixed-methods study

The Six Building Blocks: A Team-Based Approach to Improving Opioid Management in Primary Care (6BBs) program provides a roadmap for improving the management of patients on opioid therapy for chronic pain. The goal of this project was to evaluate the How-to-Implement Toolkit (Toolkit) for clinics to independently implement the 6BBs without a practice facilitator.

Eight healthcare organizations with 62 clinics participated in the program. We conducted interviews and surveys with clinical staff. A mixed-methods synthesis was conducted, incorporating themes from qualitative data and descriptive analysis of survey data.

We found that healthcare organizations appreciated the resources in the Toolkit but wanted the support of a practice facilitator. Organizations reported limited use of the Toolkit in its entirety but found individual tools useful.

The results point to the importance of support in implementing opioid quality improvement projects in primary care. The Toolkit and other 6BBs resources are available on the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality website.