Item 1 is presented courtesy of the Resource Center of the American Alliance of Cancer Pain Initiatives. The new standards are a product of a collaborative effort between the Department of Standards of the Joint Commission and the Pain Management Improvement Group at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Medical School headed by Dr. June Dahl. Determine the competency in pain assessment and management during the orientation of all new clinical staff Establish policies and procedures which support appropriate prescription or ordering of pain medications Assure that pain does not interfere with participation in rehabilitation, educate patients and their families about the importance of effective pain management Include patients' needs for symptom management in the discharge planning process and Collect data to monitor the appropriateness and effectiveness of pain management. The new standards explicitly acknowledge that pain is a co-existing condition with a number of diseases and injuries, and requires explicit attention. For example, a patient with breast cancer should effectively be treated not only for the actual illness but also for any associated pain.
Unrelieved pain has enormous physiological and psychological effects on patients.
Research clearly shows that unrelieved pain can slow recovery, create burdens for patients and their families, and increase costs to the healthcare system. The standards will first be scored for compliance in 2001. As the National Foundation has argued for more than two years, one of the reasons for inadequate pain management is that health professionals fear opioid medications will be abused. The JAMA report states that increased use of opioids resulting in abuse may be based more on myth than reality. These results suggest that the U.S. can be a model for how to achieve a balanced controlled substances policy, that is, one which can improve the availability of pain relief while limiting abuse.