Querying about pain and pain interference with function

Measure Purpose: Actively treat pain to avoid increased disability and impaired quality of life

The numerator: Patient visits with the patient queried about pain and pain interference with function using a valid and reliable instrument (e.g. Graded Chronic Pain Scale)

is divided by

The denominator: All visits for patients age 18 years and older with a diagnosis of distal symmetric polyneuropathy

Exceptions are removed from the denominator for:

• Patient is unable to respond
• Patient declined
• Patient refusal

Key Phrases

Key phrases you should use to meet this measure include:

• Assessed pain 
• Assessed pain interference with function
• Visual Analog Scale

Measure Calculation Example

Dr. Leblanc had 15 patients over the age of 18 with distal symmetric polyneuropathy from January 1 to December 31 of the measurement year. This is the denominator. One patient declined to respond to questions. This patient is removed from the denominator.

Of the remaining 14 patients, three were queried about pain and pain interference with function. This is the numerator.

Quality of care = 3/(15-1). Dr. Leblanc has a score of 21% for this measure.