Patient education and multidisciplinary treatment plans are key best practices for pain management in hospitalized patients. In a routine compliance review, stakeholders at Baylor Scott & White Medical Center – Temple identified pain management patient education as an area needing improvement. A dual-sided medication explanation card was developed, including functional expectations and a QR code linking a companion website with additional pain management educational materials. This short communication details the results from a small quality improvement pilot study using QR code technology to deliver pain management education materials to hospitalized patients. Patients were surveyed the morning after admission and survey results are reported using standard descriptive statistics. Of 46 patients who received the education card, 44 reported well-controlled or moderately-controlled pain and 36 asked for as-needed pain medications. Fourteen patients said that the card was straightforward or made the medication options easy to understand. Per analytics, the companion website had at least 37 unique visitors during the survey period, with at least 8 visitors clicking additional links from the homepage. Though 30 % of patients reported that the education card was helpful and/or straightforward regarding medication options (as intended), five patients with moderately controlled pain who asked for as-needed medications reported they were delayed or ineffective, which revealed that timely administration and adjustments to regimens per patient feedback is also essential. Website analytics suggested that patients utilize and engage with available resources at differing rates. Limitations of this pilot study include small patient population, no pre-intervention comparator group, and disruption in analytics data gathering capabilities during the pilot. Despite limited qualitative data, the quality improvement objectively demonstrated regulatory compliance with pain management education standards and it was adopted throughout all the hospitals of the Baylor Scott & White Healthcare system.
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