The Effect of a Multidisciplinary Spine Clinic on Time to Care in Patients with Chronic Back and/or Leg Pain: A Propensity Score-Matched Analysis

Ishan Naidu, Jessica Ryvlin, Devin Videlefsky, Jiyue Qin, Wenzhu B. Mowrey, Jong H. Choi, Chloe Citron, James Gary, Joshua A. Benton, Brandon T. Weiss, Michael Longo, Nabil N. Matmati, Rafael De la Garza Ramos, Jonathan Krystal, Murray Echt, Yaroslav Gelfand, Phillip Cezayirli, Neeky Yassari, Benjamin Wang, Erida Castro-RivasMark Headlam, Adaobi Udemba, Lavinia Williams, Andrew I. Gitkind, Reza Yassari, Vijay Yanamadala

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

Chronic back and leg pain are leading causes of disability worldwide. The purpose of this study was to compare the care in a unidisciplinary (USC) versus multidisciplinary (MSC) spine clinic, where patients are evaluated by different specialists during the same office visit. Adult patients presenting with a chief complaint of back and/or leg pain between June 2018 and July 2019 were assessed for eligibility. The main outcome measures included the first treatment recommendations, the time to treatment order, and the time to treatment occurrence. A 1:1 propensity score-matched analysis was performed on 874 patients (437 in each group). For all patients, the most common recommendation was physical therapy (41.4%), followed by injection (14.6%), and surgery (9.7%). Patients seen in the MSC were more likely to be recommended injection (p < 0.001) and less likely to be recommended surgery as first treatment (p = 0.001). They also had significantly shorter times to the injection order (log-rank test, p = 0.004) and the injection occurrence (log-rank test, p < 0.001). In this study, more efficient care for patients with back and/or leg pain was delivered in the MSC setting, which was evidenced by the shorter times to the injection order and occurrence. The impact of the MSC approach on patient satisfaction and health-related quality-of-life outcome measures warrants further investigation.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number2583
JournalJournal of Clinical Medicine
Volume11
Issue number9
DOIs
StatePublished - May 1 2022

Keywords

  • chronic back pain
  • injections
  • leg pain
  • multidisciplinary
  • spine clinic

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Medicine

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