Stage 1: Prepare & Launch – Six Building Blocks

Implementation Guide

Over the course of three meetings and a kickoff event, the quality improvement lead uses the Prepare & Launch Guide to help practices establish their opioid improvement team, investigate their current opioid management practices, and begin to engage clinicians and staff to focus the work going forward.

Open the Prepare and Launch Guide to begin work toward achieving the following milestones.

This is a starting list of milestones for this stage, which you can adapt to your needs.

Building Block Activities
Leadership & consensus Learn what is needed to participate in the work and make a leadership commitment Build an opioid improvement team Learn about existing evidence, guidelines, and regulations as an opioid improvement team and as a clinic Protect time for the opioid improvement team to meet Host a Kickoff with all clinicians and staff, during which feedback is gathered and enthusiasm generated
Policies, patient agreements, and workflows Locate and assess use of existing policies, agreements, and workflows
Tracking & monitoring patient care Identify existing tracking and monitoring resources Begin to create a list of patients on long-term opioid therapy
Planned, patient-centered visits Locate and assess use of patient education/support resources related to opioid management Investigate what currently happens during patient visits and refill requests related to opioid management
Caring for patients with complex needs Locate existing assessment tools and resources for patients with complex needs (i.e. mental health, OUD services)
Measuring success Complete the Self-Assessment as an opioid improvement team and as a clinic Assess current status of Six Building Blocks through Prepare and Launch meetings Produce and share with the clinic baseline data reports, as possible Identify and share with the clinic stories that exemplify why this work is important Begin identifying project aims

Building Block Activities

Leadership & consensus

Learn what is needed to participate in the work and make a leadership commitment
Build an opioid improvement team
Learn about existing evidence, guidelines, and regulations as an opioid improvement team and as a clinic
Protect time for the opioid improvement team to meet
Host a Kickoff with all clinicians and staff, during which feedback is gathered and enthusiasm generated

Policies, patient agreements, and workflows

Locate and assess use of existing policies, agreements, and workflows

Tracking & monitoring patient care

Identify existing tracking and monitoring resources
Begin to create a list of patients on long-term opioid therapy

Planned, patient-centered visits

Locate and assess use of patient education/support resources related to opioid management
Investigate what currently happens during patient visits and refill requests related to opioid management

Caring for patients with complex needs

Locate existing assessment tools and resources for patients with complex needs (i.e. mental health, OUD services)

Measuring success

Complete the Self-Assessment as an opioid improvement team and as a clinic
Assess current status of Six Building Blocks through Prepare and Launch meetings
Produce and share with the clinic baseline data reports, as possible
Identify and share with the clinic stories that exemplify why this work is important
Begin identifying project aims