Abstract

This program evaluation project aimed to assess the effectiveness of a pain management (PM) initiative and the associated Medicare cost-benefit analysis at a 96-bed skilled nursing facility (SNF) in Arizona. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Framework for Project Evaluation was used to guide this project. A board-certified PM provider was brought into the SNF to treat pain specific to each patient. Prior to this intervention, patients were being treated for pain by the internal medicine provider on staff. Data were collected at the facility to determine if implementing a designated PM program decreased the number of patients returning to acute care (RTA) within 30 days of discharge from the hospital. This was a post-initiative designed project that used existing data to analyze a comparison of proportions of patients who had an RTA event before and after the PM initiative. The proportions were compared using a z-test of proportions with a significance level set at p < .05. Data analysis of 161 patients from January to February 2023 and 167 patients from January to February 2024 demonstrated a statistically significant reduction in the occurrence of RTA events, from 10% to 0.6%, following the implementation of a PM provider. Additionally, a Medicare cost-benefit analysis was performed to directly compare the costs from the year before the PM initiative and the year following it. In this SNF, there was an estimated cost savings to Medicare for the year following PM implementation. Effective PM in the SNF setting significantly decreases RTA episodes and is cost-effective.

Author Details

Amy S. Berkhout, DNP, FNP-BC, PMGT-BC, RN

Sigma Membership

Lambda Omicron

Type

DNP Capstone Project

Format Type

Text-based Document

Study Design/Type

Quality Improvement

Research Approach

Other

Keywords:

Pain Management, Elderly, Skilled Nursing Facility

Advisor

Dawn Rivas

Degree

DNP

Degree Grantor

Northern Arizona University

Degree Year

2025

Rights Holder

All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record. All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository. All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.

Review Type

None: Degree-based Submission

Acquisition

Proxy-submission

Full Text of Presentation

wf_yes

Download
Click above link to access the paper.

Share

COinS