Visit Linearity in Primary Care Visits for Patients with Chronic Pain on Long-term Opioid Therapy.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Physicians and patients report frustration after primary care visits for chronic pain. The need to shift between multiple clinical topics to address competing demands during visits may contribute to this frustration.

Objective

This study creates a novel measure, "visit linearity," to assess visit organization and examines whether visits that require less shifting back and forth between topics are associated with better patient and physician visit experiences. It also explores whether visit linearity differs depending on the following: (1) whether or not pain is a major topic of the visit and (2) whether or not pain is the first topic raised.

Design

This study analyzed 41 video-recorded visits using inductive, qualitative analysis informed by conversation an

SUBMITTER: White AEC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8738805 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature