(362) ED Acupuncture: Feasibility, Acceptability, and Impact on Pain

Abstract

When patients present to the emergency department (ED) for pain, conventional treatment is often limited to prescription medications. Hospitals are now seeking non-pharmacological management options for acute pain due to the opioid crisis. Our quality improvement study aimed to determine the feasibility of implanting an employed acupuncturist within an urban ED to provide acupuncture as a nonpharmacological acute pain management option and to determine the impact of acupuncture on acute pain reduction. To our knowledge, few ED acupuncture models exist worldwide. Limited information has been reported about acceptance of acupuncture in the ED setting by physicians and patients, and it is unknown if there is enough time for acupuncture during the ED visit. The ED selected for this study had an average 1.5-2 hour wait time for treatment and annually treated an average of 34,000 patients of which 66% presented with an emergency severity index between 3-5(ESI; highest severity [1] - lowest severity [5]). In 2017, acupuncture services were offered to adult patients with ED physician approval based on their ESI level and reason for visit. Patient self-reported pre- and post-acupuncture pain scores (i.e., no pain [0] - worst pain [10]) were compared using paired t-tests. Multivariable regression models were also constructed. A total of 706 patients were approached, of which 379 (53.7%) consented to receive acupuncture services. Overall, patients presented with a median ESI score of 3, and 53.6% did not receive opioids at any time during their ED visit. Mean pain score improvement (6.5 vs. 3.4; p