Picot Question: In adult patients with chronic pain in an outpatient practice, does implementation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Guidelines for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain (CPG-GPO), compared to current practice, impact the rate of opioid prescriiptions written in 10 to 12 weeks?
QUESTION: Opioid prescriiption practices are an important practice problem affecting many areas of health care. A paired t-test is a good fit for the pre and post pain assessment measure. Are you also capturing the number of opioid prescriiptions written for this patient population pre and post? Would you assess prescriiptions using descriiptive statistics and potentially a t-test? What are the actions that are expected of providers as it relates to the guidelines? Would you also assess for compliance with the guidelines?
