Pain is very subjective, and it is difficult to measure success in managing it. Setting up evidence-based measurement tools and evaluating the data are key to success in the PACED program.

Data analytics can help in the PACED accreditation process.

In the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic, the opioid epidemic rages on. Even though it’s not as widely covered in the news as it once was, opioid addiction is at a high point in the United States.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there were slight declines in opioid overdoses from 2017 to 2018, but preliminary data is showing that they rose again in 2019. Importantly, nearly 63% of these deaths were documented as having had at least one opportunity for prevention intervention. The medical community must act and develop evidence-based strategies to combat addiction.

Physicians and health care professionals see patients in chronic and acute pain every day. Managing pain in a compassionate and helpful way — while minimizing the potential for addiction — is a delicate balancing act, requiring specialized knowledge and protocols.

PACED Accreditation

The Pain and Addiction Care in the Emergency Department (PACED) accreditation program provides emergency departments with strategies to improve pain and addiction care in the community. The PACED program asks EDs to:

Elevate the quality of patient care with innovative treatments, alternative modalities, and impactful risk reduction strategies in a collaborative team setting, resulting in positive outcomes for your patients, families, providers, and communities.

The PACED accreditation program, administered by the American College of Emergency Physicians, is a prestigious achievement for any hospital. The program recognizes three levels: gold, silver, and bronze. PACED accredited hospitals have seen benefits such as reduced repeat ED visits, reduced hospital readmissions and penalties, increased patient satisfaction scores, and fewer patient mortalities.

How d2i Can Help

EDs that begin their journey to PACED accreditation must first start by evaluating their processes, establishing measures, and collecting data. They often are faced with EHR systems that aren’t capable of providing the exact insights needed.

d2i has expertise in implementing advanced analytics solutions to support programs like PACED and track the outcome measures required for accreditation. With a solid data strategy, d2i can work with major EHRs to provide opioid and their alternatives’ prescription data, pain prevalence, and benchmarking. A key to driving change is the ability to isolate opportunities for improvement by segmenting data by provider, multiple patient demographics, and diagnosis/condition.

Pain is a very subjective symptom, and it is difficult to measure success in managing it. Setting up evidence-based measurement tools and evaluating the data are key to success in the PACED program. Analyzing documentation compliance, prevalence, and success of pain treatment provides an understanding of each hospital’s unique patient population.

Successful PACED programs are tailored to each community’s challenges, which requires constant monitoring of data, transparently sharing individual provider and department variation to goals, and customizing interventions to find the best solutions. d2i is here to help on all stages of the journey to PACED accreditation. We are a vested partner, providing data intelligence tools that help hospitals provide the best quality of health care.

If your hospital’s ED is preparing for ACEP’s Pain and Addiction Care in the ED accreditation program, d2i can help you measure required outcomes and promote quality initiatives designed for pain patients. Contact our team to learn about all of the ways our application can help you improve performance, or request a demo to see why no other health care analytics tool comes close.

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