Revise, align, and implement clinic policies, patient agreements, and workflows for health care team members to improve opioid prescribing and care of patients with chronic pain.
Instructions: First, review each question and circle the description that best reflects your organization’s current status. Then, select the number that best reflects where you are within that description. There are three number options for each answer to allow you to select how far along you are. The higher the number, the further along you are in that domain. A PDF of this section of the assessment is here.
4. Policy development/revision
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456
789
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Comprehensive policies* regarding long-term opioid therapy that reflect evidence-based guidelines, such as the CDC Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain or state-based opioid prescribing guidelines…
…do not exist.
…exist, but have not been recently revised and updated.
…exist, have been recently updated, but are still lacking essential components.
…exist, and have been recently updated to reflect recent evidence-based guidelines, and are comprehensive.
5. Policy implementation
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456
789
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Policies regarding long-term opioid therapy…
…have not been distributed to clinicians and staff.
…have been distributed to clinicians and staff, but have not been discussed.
…have been distributed, have been discussed with all clinic staff and clinicians, but are not consistently followed.
…have been distributed, have been discussed with all clinic staff and clinicians, and are consistently followed.
6. Patient agreements
123
456
789
101112
Formal signed patient agreements regarding long-term opioid therapy…
…do not exist.
…exist, but do not align with current clinic policies and/or are not consistently used
…exist, align with current clinic policies, but are not consistently used.
…exist, align with current policies, and are consistently used with all patients on chronic opioid therapy.
7. Workflows
123
456
789
101112
Clinic workflows for managing patients on long-term opioid therapy…
…do not exist.
…exist, but do not support current clinic policies.
…exist, support current clinic policies, but are not fully implemented.
…exist, support current clinic policies, and are fully implemented.
*Examples of areas that a comprehensive policy might address include:
Prescribing opioids for acute pain
Duration and dose of opioids for chronic pain
Use of non-opioid and non-pharmacological therapies
Co-prescribing of opioids and benzodiazepines
Urine drug screening
Monitoring of state controlled substances database
