Improving Pain Management for Older Adults in the Emergency Department (ED)

This study will compare the effectiveness of the combined electronic pain care alert (ePCA) and "pain keycepts" (i.e., embedded pain care concepts/algorithms within clinician documentation templates) intervention versus routine care on acute pain care outcomes for geriatric abdominal pain patients in severe pain.

Hypothesis: The ePCA and pain keycept will improve the quality of acute pain care (i.e., Geriatric pain care quality indicators that include improved pain evaluation and pain treatment (better pain assessment documentation, earlier administration of analgesic medication, greater reduction of pain levels)) for geriatric abdominal pain patients in severe pain.

Study Design: This is an exploratory randomized trial of the intervention versus usual clinical care (control).

1. (Pre-intervention abdominal pain care baseline): Prior to any implementation of the ePCA, baseline Epic process of pain care measures for abdominal pain patients will be collected for a 4-month period. Study variables will be collected to determine baseline patient-related and abdominal pain care data. Baseline data will be used for two purposes. To determine if there: 1.) is an improvement in the quality of pain care received post-intervention and 2.) are treatment diffusion effects with the control (routine care) physicians who do not receive ePCAs (i.e., after the intervention period has commenced, are differences in process of pain care outcomes found for the control group versus pre-intervention baseline group).
2. This will be a randomized comparative effectiveness trial gathering pilot data on the efficacy of the ePCA to improve with ED pain care for adults with severe abdominal pain. To study the effect of the ePCA intervention, the alert will be randomized to RESIDENT physicians, who will be randomly assigned to groups designated in the Epic EMR (electronic medical record) (i.e., the alert will be triggered for some residents, and not triggered for other residents (usual care) for the entire study period). Both groups will have equal privileges in all ways (i.e., documentation and ordering) except that BPAs will or will not be integrated for intervention vs. control. Investigators will be blinded to randomization assignments and subjects (resident physicians) will be blinded to study aims. Residents will always remain in their initial randomized arm.

The unit of analysis will be the ED visit. To study the impact of the ePCA on pain care outcomes, pilot data will be collected with prospective survey from abdominal pain patients, automated data reports from Epic and MSDW, and medical record review. Eligible subjects enrolled and consented will be surveyed at discharge from the ED with regard to pain scores, desire for analgesic medication, and satisfaction with pain care. While evidence from the Surgical and Emergency Medicine (EM) literature indicate early analgesia does not obscure clinical diagnoses, not result in diagnostic delays, nor impedes informed consent, some clinicians may withhold analgesia due to the continued misguided belief that analgesia may mask diagnostic findings or invalidate consent. For this reason, data will also be collected of whether or not the patient required surgical consultation.