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Advancing the Safety of Acute Pain Management

Advancing the Safety of Acute Pain Management. Boston, Massachusetts: Institute for Healthcare Improvement; 2019. (Available on ihi.org)

Although prescriptions for opioids are on the decline, open questions remain about how to safely and effectively treat acute pain without over-reliance on these drugs.

This report describes the recommendations of an expert panel convened by IHI to examine acute pain management. It specifically and uniquely addresses acute pain management as a patient safety issue, including the overuse of opioids for acute pain.

The report provides health care safety leaders in hospitals, emergency departments (EDs), urgent care clinics, outpatient surgery facilities, and other acute care settings with specific action steps to improve the safety of acute pain management in their organizations, templates for conducting organizational assessments, and a case study illustrating how to move forward on this work.

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Advancing the Safety of Acute Pain Management

Effective Communication Simulation

Presurgery Conversation Between Patient and Surgeon

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by Elodia Navarro Baldovino 7/28/2019 3:51:50 PM nos enseña como podemos tratar el dolor agudo

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by Jamie Schultz 5/2/2019 3:00:58 PM The number of opioid related deaths is nowhere near the deaths by medical errors, third leading cause of death I have read. Lets work on correcting something bigger. I work in pain management and find it heartless that so many patients in pain are denied treatment or have been cut off from current treatment due to the irresponsible acts of others. We are not looking at the affect on your patient taking medication to get through the day, but adjusting our practice to the few that are supposedly getting opiates through prescribed diversion. Similar to guilty until proven innocent, this is not how we should be treating patients. Perhaps we need easier and visible opportunities for people to give back unused medications. I am also hearing patients are hanging on to their unused medication to avoid going to the ER for acute injuries that could be very costly. The government has created a problem and now they are scaring us into more taxation to correct it.

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by Farook Mirza 3/28/2019 1:33:16 PM Excellent tools for pain management & safety

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by Cheryl Van Epps 3/12/2019 12:10:57 PM Providers, be transparent: poorly managed acute pain often leads to more complex chronic pain. Was sent home from PACU with a barf bowl, dizzy from double vision resulting from surgery on orbital floor. Dry heaves all day long- why wasn't I on a drip for an overnight stay? Please consider reviewing PACU discharge criteria standards. Patients must do homework to educate themselves about their type of surgery in order to be able to ask relevant questions: incision site choice, possibility of tissue damage as implant is placed leading to possible outcomes, etc. Orbital floor repair: barely mentioned before signing consent form the level of pain from cranial nerve damage (trigeminal neuralgia), permanent double vision, need for transportation because medically restricted from driving. Needed case management. Let's face it, patients don't get this kind of care ^ in the reality of our corporate run healthcare facilities. Patient safety and care quality sacrificed to cut time & costs.

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by Valentine Agola Ngeleso 3/12/2019 2:28:59 AM THIS IS VERY USEFUL INFORMATION. THE USE OF OPIOIDS HAS INCREASE EVEN AT THE PRIMARY HEALTH CARE LEVEL.

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by Bob Flora 3/12/2019 1:16:06 AM I am insulted by some paternalistic concepts set forth. We have the ability to eliminate pain, but clinicians want to tell patients it is too bad but you will have pain. It is not the clinician's decision! I am against "pain mgmt. contracts." The clinician services the patient's needs, not the other way around. And the shared decision making is bogus. If the patient says I want opioids and zero pain, that is the patient's right! There is plenty of research that shows denying access to these medicines leads to illicit purchases, and those purchases typically go to more potent opioids. Finally, this report purposely avoids costs. How do you explain to a patient that he has to pay for all these appointments and other therapies when opioids are cheap? If you want to make a difference, have a real discussion about the risks and benefits and allow the patient to decide. Although the patient chooses a path you would not, he might surprise you if given full information and choice.

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Avoiding "Drift" into Harm

This article presents specific steps leaders can take to reinforce effective patient safety practices and address workarounds that may unintentionally result in harm.
Adopting a Systems Approach to the Opioid Crisis

Rather than a myopic focus on opioid prescription reduction, this article describes five strategies health care leaders can employ to implement a systems approach to timely and effective treatment of opioid use disorder, in tandem with pain assessment and management.

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Advancing the Safety of Acute Pain Management

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Effective Communication ​Simulation

Effective Communication Simulation