NCT02470728

Brief Summary

Pain is a symptom that drives hospital admissions, and pain management is required by most patients during their hospital stay. Further, the use of medications such as opioids can lead to upward-spiraling doses, especially among chronic pain patients whose resource utilization rates are high. Many initiatives aim to reduce the costs of these "high-resource utilizing" patients. One exciting aspect of improving the management of pain is that this may help prevent patients from ever becoming high-cost in the first place. The purpose of this study is to examine the impacts of an early and sustained intervention pathway, in comparison to the current standard of care, for the treatment of pain in opioid tolerant patients. It is hypothesized that patients randomized to the intervention pathway, in comparison to the control, will lead to decreased costs of care, a reduction in opioid usage within 3 and 6 months, and decrease in hospital readmission rates.

Trial Health

57
Monitor

Trial Health Score

Automated assessment based on enrollment pace, timeline, and geographic reach

Enrollment
60

participants targeted

Target at P25-P50 for not_applicable pain

Timeline
Completed

Started Jan 2016

Longer than P75 for not_applicable pain

Geographic Reach
1 country

2 active sites

Status
terminated

Health score is calculated from publicly available data and should be used for screening purposes only.

Trial Relationships

Click on a node to explore related trials.

Study Timeline

Key milestones and dates

First Submitted

Initial submission to the registry

January 13, 2015

Completed
5 months until next milestone

First Posted

Study publicly available on registry

June 12, 2015

Completed
7 months until next milestone

Study Start

First participant enrolled

January 1, 2016

Completed
3.6 years until next milestone

Primary Completion

Last participant's last visit for primary outcome

July 29, 2019

Completed
2 days until next milestone

Study Completion

Last participant's last visit for all outcomes

July 31, 2019

Completed
Last Updated

February 11, 2025

Status Verified

February 1, 2025

Enrollment Period

3.6 years

First QC Date

January 13, 2015

Last Update Submit

February 7, 2025

Conditions

Keywords

patient readmissionpain relief unitspain centersmultidisciplinary pain clinicsmultidisciplinary pain centerspain clinicshospital readmissionemergenciesemergency medicinecritical careemergency treatmentopioidacute pain service

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

  • Returns to Acute Care

    Hospital Readmissions and Emergency Department Utilizations

    Discharge through 90 days post-discharge

Secondary Outcomes (9)

  • Opioid Analgesic Use

    Discharge through 90 days post-discharge

  • Opioid Analgesic Use

    Admission through 12 months post-discharge

  • Opioid Tolerance Status

    Admission through 12 months post-discharge

  • Pain at Discharge

    Measured upon day of discharge from index hospitalization; up to 18 months from the date of randomization

  • Hospital Length of Stay

    Measured upon day of discharge from index hospitalization; up to 18 months from the date of randomization

  • +4 more secondary outcomes

Study Arms (2)

Control Group

NO INTERVENTION

Those randomized into the control group will receive the current standard of care for pain management. This standard care pathway involves a pain management specialist consultation only at the request of the primary admitting team. The pain management consultation can occur at any time during the patient's inpatient stay and care by these specialists ends at discharge.

Treatment Group

EXPERIMENTAL

Subjects randomized into the treatment (early intervention) group will receive the New Clinical Pathway: pain management care coordinated by pain-management specialists from inpatient admission through 60 days after discharge.

Other: New Clinical Pathway

Interventions

Treatment Group

Eligibility Criteria

Age18 Years+
Sexall
Healthy VolunteersNo
Age GroupsAdult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

  • Adult patients (18 years and older)
  • Known opioid tolerant (as determined per FDA criteria)
  • Agree to sign the informed consent and HIPAA forms

You may not qualify if:

  • Patients under the age of 18 years
  • No known opioid tolerance
  • Do not agree to sign the informed consent and HIPAA forms

Contact the study team to confirm eligibility.

Sponsors & Collaborators

Study Sites (2)

University of California, Irvine Medical Center

Orange, California, 92868, United States

Location

Duke University Medical Center

Durham, North Carolina, 27710, United States

Location

Related Publications (19)

  • Raebel MA, Newcomer SR, Reifler LM, Boudreau D, Elliott TE, DeBar L, Ahmed A, Pawloski PA, Fisher D, Donahoo WT, Bayliss EA. Chronic use of opioid medications before and after bariatric surgery. JAMA. 2013 Oct 2;310(13):1369-76. doi: 10.1001/jama.2013.278344.

    PMID: 24084922BACKGROUND
  • Brown EG, Burgess D, Li CS, Canter RJ, Bold RJ. Hospital readmissions: necessary evil or preventable target for quality improvement. Ann Surg. 2014 Oct;260(4):583-9; discussion 589-91. doi: 10.1097/SLA.0000000000000923.

    PMID: 25203874BACKGROUND
  • Gulur P, Williams L, Chaudhary S, Koury K, Jaff M. Opioid tolerance--a predictor of increased length of stay and higher readmission rates. Pain Physician. 2014 Jul-Aug;17(4):E503-7.

    PMID: 25054400BACKGROUND
  • Kessler ER, Shah M, Gruschkus SK, Raju A. Cost and quality implications of opioid-based postsurgical pain control using administrative claims data from a large health system: opioid-related adverse events and their impact on clinical and economic outcomes. Pharmacotherapy. 2013 Apr;33(4):383-91. doi: 10.1002/phar.1223.

    PMID: 23553809BACKGROUND
  • Lembke A. Why doctors prescribe opioids to known opioid abusers. How cultural attitudes and financial disincentives affect the prescribing habits of physicians. Minn Med. 2013 Mar;96(3):36-7. No abstract available.

    PMID: 23930467BACKGROUND
  • Volkow ND, Frieden TR, Hyde PS, Cha SS. Medication-assisted therapies--tackling the opioid-overdose epidemic. N Engl J Med. 2014 May 29;370(22):2063-6. doi: 10.1056/NEJMp1402780. Epub 2014 Apr 23. No abstract available.

    PMID: 24758595BACKGROUND
  • Pugely AJ, Martin CT, Gao Y, Mendoza-Lattes S. Causes and risk factors for 30-day unplanned readmissions after lumbar spine surgery. Spine (Phila Pa 1976). 2014 Apr 20;39(9):761-8. doi: 10.1097/BRS.0000000000000270.

    PMID: 24525993BACKGROUND
  • Hazratjee N, Agito M, Lopez R, Lashner B, Rizk MK. Hospital readmissions in patients with inflammatory bowel disease. Am J Gastroenterol. 2013 Jul;108(7):1024-32. doi: 10.1038/ajg.2012.343.

    PMID: 23820989BACKGROUND
  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). CDC grand rounds: prescription drug overdoses - a U.S. epidemic. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2012 Jan 13;61(1):10-3.

    PMID: 22237030BACKGROUND
  • Bell JR. Australian trends in opioid prescribing for chronic non-cancer pain, 1986-1996. Med J Aust. 1997 Jul 7;167(1):26-9. doi: 10.5694/j.1326-5377.1997.tb138759.x.

    PMID: 9236756BACKGROUND
  • Bot AG, Bekkers S, Arnstein PM, Smith RM, Ring D. Opioid use after fracture surgery correlates with pain intensity and satisfaction with pain relief. Clin Orthop Relat Res. 2014 Aug;472(8):2542-9. doi: 10.1007/s11999-014-3660-4. Epub 2014 Apr 29.

    PMID: 24777731BACKGROUND
  • Herzig SJ, Rothberg MB, Cheung M, Ngo LH, Marcantonio ER. Opioid utilization and opioid-related adverse events in nonsurgical patients in US hospitals. J Hosp Med. 2014 Feb;9(2):73-81. doi: 10.1002/jhm.2102. Epub 2013 Nov 13.

    PMID: 24227700BACKGROUND
  • Apfelbaum JL, Chen C, Mehta SS, Gan TJ. Postoperative pain experience: results from a national survey suggest postoperative pain continues to be undermanaged. Anesth Analg. 2003 Aug;97(2):534-540. doi: 10.1213/01.ANE.0000068822.10113.9E.

    PMID: 12873949BACKGROUND
  • Torrance N, Elliott AM, Lee AJ, Smith BH. Severe chronic pain is associated with increased 10 year mortality. A cohort record linkage study. Eur J Pain. 2010 Apr;14(4):380-6. doi: 10.1016/j.ejpain.2009.07.006. Epub 2009 Sep 1.

    PMID: 19726210BACKGROUND
  • Pavon JM, Zhao Y, McConnell E, Hastings SN. Identifying risk of readmission in hospitalized elderly adults through inpatient medication exposure. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2014 Jun;62(6):1116-21. doi: 10.1111/jgs.12829. Epub 2014 May 6.

    PMID: 24802165BACKGROUND
  • Muthuvel G, Tevis SE, Liepert AE, Agarwal SK, Kennedy GD. A composite index for predicting readmission following emergency general surgery. J Trauma Acute Care Surg. 2014 Jun;76(6):1467-72. doi: 10.1097/TA.0000000000000223.

    PMID: 24854317BACKGROUND
  • Wilson GC, Cutler Quillin R 3rd, Sutton JM, Wima K, Shaw JJ, Hoehn RS, Paquette IM, Abbott DE, Shah SA. Factors related to readmission after major elective surgery. Dig Dis Sci. 2015 Jan;60(1):47-53. doi: 10.1007/s10620-014-3306-0. Epub 2014 Jul 27.

    PMID: 25064214BACKGROUND
  • Anderegg SV, Wilkinson ST, Couldry RJ, Grauer DW, Howser E. Effects of a hospitalwide pharmacy practice model change on readmission and return to emergency department rates. Am J Health Syst Pharm. 2014 Sep 1;71(17):1469-79. doi: 10.2146/ajhp130686.

    PMID: 25147171BACKGROUND
  • Tayne S, Merrill CA, Shah SN, Kim J, Mackey WC. Risk factors for 30-day readmissions and modifying postoperative care after gastric bypass surgery. J Am Coll Surg. 2014 Sep;219(3):489-95. doi: 10.1016/j.jamcollsurg.2014.03.054. Epub 2014 May 20.

    PMID: 25151343BACKGROUND

MeSH Terms

Conditions

PainAcute PainPain, PostoperativeEmergencies

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Neurologic ManifestationsSigns and SymptomsPathological Conditions, Signs and SymptomsPostoperative ComplicationsPathologic ProcessesDisease Attributes

Study Officials

  • Padma Gulur, MD

    Duke University

    PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

Study Type
interventional
Phase
not applicable
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Masking
NONE
Purpose
HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH
Intervention Model
PARALLEL
Sponsor Type
OTHER
Responsible Party
SPONSOR

Study Record Dates

First Submitted

January 13, 2015

First Posted

June 12, 2015

Study Start

January 1, 2016

Primary Completion

July 29, 2019

Study Completion

July 31, 2019

Last Updated

February 11, 2025

Record last verified: 2025-02

Locations