Demographic characteristics and clinical predictors of patients discharged from university hospital-affiliated pain clinic due to breach in narcotic use contract.

OBJECTIVE

The current retrospective study was completed with the aim to identify demographic characteristics and clinical predictors (if any) of the patients discharged from our pain clinic due to breach in narcotic use contract (BNUC).

DESIGN

Retrospective patient charts' review and data audit.

SETTING

University hospital-affiliated pain clinic in the United States.

PARTICIPANTS

All patient charts in our pain clinic for a 2-year period (2011-2012).

INTERVENTIONS: The patients with BNUC were delineated from the patients who had not been discharged from our pain clinic.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Pain characteristics, pain management, and substance abuse status were compared in each patient with BNUC between the time of admission and the time of discharge.

RESULTS

The patients with BNUC discharges showed significant variability for the discharging factors among the pain physicians within a single pain clinic model with this variability being dependent on their years of experience and their proactive interventional pain management. The patients with BNUC in our pain clinic setting were primarily middle-aged, obese, unmarried males with nondocumented stable occupational history who were receiving only noninterventional pain management. Substance abuse, doctor shopping, and potential diversion were the top three documented reasons for BNUC discharges.

CONCLUSION

In 2011-2012, our pain clinic discharged 1-in-16 patients due to breach in narcotic use contract.