Avoidance of Opioid Medications for Patients with Painful Diabetic Neuropathy
Measure Purpose: Ensure patients with diabetic neuropathy are not inappropriately prescribed opioids
The numerator: patient prescribed an opioid medication
is divided by
the denominator: patients with a diagnosis of diabetic neuropathy.
*This is an inverse measure, and a lower score is desirable.
Required exclusions are removed from the denominator:
- Opioid prescription from a different clinician
Allowable exclusions are removed from the denominator:
- Patients counseled on last visit of calendar year and agreement reached to discontinue opioid medications
- Patients receiving opioids in the setting of a controlled/monitored program to manage opioid dependency
- Patient with active diagnosis of cancer
- Patient admitted to hospice care or patient at end-of-life
Key Phrases
Performance will be calculated using prescription data.
Examples of key phrases you could use to meet the measure include:
- Discussed opioids and patient's medication will be discontinued
- Patient is active at a methadone maintenance program
- Patient recently admitted to hospice
Measure Calculation Example
Dr. Bautista saw 100 patients with a diagnosis of diabetic neuropathy between January 1 and December 31. This is the denominator.
Three of these patients were prescribed an opioid from a different clinician and are excluded from the denominator. Of the remaining 97 patients, Dr. Bautista documented opioid prescriptions for 13 patients. This is the numerator.
Quality of patient care = 13/(100-3). Dr. Bautista has a score of 13.4% for this measure.