The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in collaboration with Abt Associates, is facilitating utilization of the CDC Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain through electronic Clinical Decision Support (CDS) tools developed to align with the Guideline recommendations. These CDS tools integrate the science of the Guideline recommendations into electronic health records and clinical workflow in various forms. These CDS tools were implemented at four healthcare systems in Kansas, Texas, New York, and Pennsylvania.

The implementation of the CDS tools was evaluated through the collection of patient outcome measures (in pre- and post-implementation), and semi-structured interviews with the project lead at participating sites.

Findings indicate the feasibility of building CDS tools aligned to the CDC Guideline recommendations, and uptake of those CDS tools by providers. The development and uptake of some tools are more challenging than others, highlighting the importance of interaction and feedback between clinical providers and IT staff.

Participating healthcare systems observed reductions in the total number of opioid prescriptions written and dose prescribed to patients, and an increase in referrals to services addressing opioid use disorder. Offering providers flexibility to use patient-specific customization increases CDS tool utility. The design, validation, and implementation of CDS tools varies within systems. This evaluation provides guidance to other healthcare systems for the design and implementation of CDS tools. Findings may be especially helpful for smaller or rural healthcare systems, where resources are limited, as they can leverage the lessons from this effort to more easily implement CDS tools.