Improving the Care of Patients with Acute Back Pain

Management of acute back-pain in EDs is suboptimal with high rates of unnecessary imaging, opioid use, and hospital admissions.

 

Our aim was to improve the care of patients with acute back-pain by implementing the NSW-ACI Back-Pain Model of Care(MOC) into three EDs within SLHD and Dubbo Base Hospital.

 

After the implementation phase, >4,800 patients, and deployment of the STARS Back Pain App, rates of opioid use reduced from 65% to 47%, imaging decreased from 28% to 25%, and hospital admissions dropped from 17% to 14%.

 

Patients were also satisfied with the care provided, rating the ED 7.2 (0-10) on average.