PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Jacqueline A. Carrico
AU  - Katharine Mahoney
AU  - Kristen M. Raymond
AU  - Logan Mims
AU  - Peter C. Smith
AU  - Joseph T. Sakai
AU  - Susan K. Mikulich-Gilbertson
AU  - Christian J. Hopfer
AU  - Karsten Bartels
TI  - The Association of Patient Satisfaction-Based Incentives with Primary Care Physician Opioid Prescribing
AID  - 10.3122/jabfm.2018.06.180067
DP  - 2018 Nov 01
TA  - The Journal of the American Board of Family
                Medicine
PG  - 941--943
VI  - 31
IP  - 6
4099  - http://www.jabfm.org/content/31/6/941.short
4100  - http://www.jabfm.org/content/31/6/941.full
SO  - J Am Board Fam Med2018 Nov 01; 31
AB  - Purpose: The opioid epidemic in the United States is an ongoing public health concern. Health care institutions use standardized patient satisfaction surveys to assess the patient experience and some offer incentives to their providers based on the results. We hypothesized that providers who report being incentivized based on patient satisfaction surveys are more likely to report an impact of such surveys on their opioid prescribing practices.Methods: We developed a 23-item survey instrument to assess the self-perceived impact of patient satisfaction surveys on opioid prescribing practices in primary care and the potential impact of institutional incentives. The survey was emailed to all 1404 members of the Colorado Academy of Family Physicians.Results: The response rate to the online survey was 10.4% (n = 146). Clinical indications for which responders prescribe opioids included acute pain (93%), cancer pain (85%), and chronic nonmalignant pain (72%). Among physicians using patient satisfaction surveys, incentivized physicians reported at least a slight impact on opioid prescribing 3 times more often than physicians who were not incentivized (36% vs 12%, P = .004).Conclusions: Efforts to improve patient satisfaction may have potentially untoward effects on providers' opioid prescribing behaviors. Our results suggest a need to further study the impact of provider incentive plans that are based on patient satisfaction scores.