Background: Interdisciplinary musculoskeletal programs address comorbidities confounding musculoskeletal conditions and serve as an alternative to the single provider model.
Objective: Descriptive analysis of an interdisciplinary musculoskeletal program.
Design: Retrospective descriptive analysis of patients enrolled in an interdisciplinary musculoskeletal program. Retrospective subanalysis: cohort of patients enrolled in interdisciplinary program with low back pain compared to historical cohort of patients in a single provider clinic.
Setting: Academic interdisciplinary musculoskeletal health program.
Patients: Patients referred to program with at least one follow-up visit over a 2-year period.
Interventions: Interdisciplinary musculoskeletal program involving physiatry, pain anesthesia, nutrition, psychology, rheumatology, sleep medicine, nursing, and physical therapy.
Main outcome measurements: Patient Specific Functional Scale (PSFS), Oswestry Low Back Disability Index (ODI), number of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans, computed tomography (CT) scans, opioid prescriptions; Press Ganey scores.
Results: One hundred and seventy-three patients were enrolled and had at least one follow-up visit. Twenty-four percent of patients with any musculoskeletal complaint demonstrated clinically significant improvements in total PSFS. Mean improvement in PSFS was + 0.864 (SD 1.94), which was a statistically significant improvement (P = .0005), but not clinically significant. Magnetic resonance imaging was ordered for 5% of patients, and no computed tomography scans were ordered. Six percent of patients received opioid prescriptions. Press Ganey scores: 96% responded favorably in regard to physician communication quality, 86% of patients responded favorably for access to care, and 78% responded favorably for care coordination. 27.8% of patients with low back pain in the interdisciplinary program achieved a significant decrease in their ODI, compared to 26.6% in the single provider clinic (P = .87).
Conclusions: Interdisciplinary musculoskeletal programs are a promising model to improve the functioning of patients with musculoskeletal pain and decrease downstream utilization. These programs may be more appropriate for patients at higher risk of developing chronic pain.
© 2019 American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.