Background: The Stewardship Framework (Framework) was developed by an expert clinician group and was designed to provide a mechanism for continuous monitoring of improvement in opioid prescribing in acute hospitals. The aim of this study was to modify the Framework into an Opioid Stewardship Self-Assessment Tool (Self-Assessment Tool), and pilot test the acceptability and its use in a variety of acute hospital settings.
Methods: The Framework was converted into the Self-Assessment Tool to allow hospitals to undertake a gap analysis of their current opioid stewardship activities. To participate hospitals were required to establish a small team and complete the Self-Assessment Tool. Participating sites were recruited using purposive sampling. Responses were tabulated and coded to enable assessment. 'Acceptability' was defined as the completion of the Self-Assessment Tool (response rate, proportion of questions answered) and responder feedback relating to its content. The use of the Tool was categorised based on the level of detail of responses.
Results: Nineteen of the 20 facilities approached, agreed to participate. The 16 sites which established a small team to facilitate survey completion are included in the final analysis. The overall response rate was 96 % (413/432) for the (27 survey questions across 16 participating sites), 4 % (19/432) of questions were left unanswered or were not interpretable by the study team. Opportunities were identified to enhance the use of the Self-Assessment Tool, particularly to support its potential to assist reflection and planning of local strategies.
Conclusion: This study demonstrated that the Self-Assessment Tool was an acceptable method of assessing a facility's opioid stewardship capabilities in a real-world setting. The next iteration will be modified using the insights on how the Tool was used by study participants.
Keywords: Implementation; Opioid; Pain; Stewardship.
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