No Success without Effort: Follow-Up at Six Years after Implementing a Benchmarking and Feedback Concept for Postoperative Pain after Total Hip Arthroplasty

Background: Total hip arthroplasty (THA) is still ranked among the operations with the highest postoperative pain scores. Uncontrolled postsurgical pain leads to prolongated hospital stays, causes more frequent adverse reactions and can induce chronical pain syndromes. In 2014, we implemented a standardized, multidisciplinary pain management concept with continuous benchmarking at our tertiary referral center by using the “Quality Improvement in Postoperative Pain Management” (QUIPS) program with excellent results over a period of two years. The initial study ended in 2016 and we aimed to evaluate if it was possible to obtain the excellent short-term results over a period of six years without any extra effort within the daily clinical routine. Materials and Methods: In a retrospective study design, we compared postoperative pain, side effects and functional outcome after primary THA for 2015 and 2021, using validated questionnaires from the QUIPS project. In contrast to the implementation of the pain management concept in 2014, the weekly meetings of the multidisciplinary health care team and special education for nurses were stopped in 2021. Data assessment was performed by an independent pain nurse who was not involved in pain management. Results: Altogether, 491 patients received primary THA in 2015 and 2021 at our tertiary referral center. Collected data revealed significantly worse maximum and activity-related pain (both p < 0.001) in combination with significantly higher opioid consumption in comparison to implementation in 2015. Though the patients reported to be less involved in pain management (p < 0.001), the worse pain scores were not reflected by patient satisfaction which remained high. While the participation rate in this benchmarking program dropped, we still fell behind in terms of maximum and activity-related pain in comparison to 24 clinics. Conclusion: Significantly worse pain scores in combination with higher opioid usage and a lower hospital participation rate resemble a reduced awareness in postoperative pain management. The significantly lower patient participation in pain management is in line with the worse pain scores and indirectly highlights the need for special education in pain management. The fact patient satisfaction appeared to remain high and did not differ significantly from 2015, as well as the fact we still achieved an acceptable ranking in comparison to other clinics, highlight the value of the implemented multidisciplinary pain management concept.