“There’s a very progressive amount of sedation,” says Deb Gordon, RN, DNP, FAAN, a contributor to The Joint Commission’s alert and a teaching associate in the department of anesthesiology and pain medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Developing a pain treatment plan with a reassessment component is essential to exercising caution against potential harm from opioids.
“The Joint Commission’s guidance is wonderfully helpful and will benefit patients,” says Beth B. Murinson, MS, MD, PhD, associate professor and director of pain education in the department of neurology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. “Getting opioid pain relief right is critically important as lives are hanging in the balance on both sides of this problem: Too little pain relief and millions will suffer; too much and lives are at risk.”
Hospitalists should be familiar with a few opioids that they feel comfortable prescribing, Dr. Murinson says. Be prepared to easily identify the major idiosyncratic effects and ordinary side effects of these medications and become well versed in opioid conversion.
“This is a classic problem in the field because, although the opioids are generally similar in their efficacy against pain, they have markedly different potencies against pain,” she explains. “A dose of 2 mg of morphine may need to be ‘converted’ to X mg of another opioid, depending on local practice patterns and preferences.”
Some drugs pose special risks. For example, transdermal fentanyl is “appropriate only for use in people who need opioid-level analgesia for an extended period of time and whose analgesic requirements are stable. This is not the case for folks with acute pain or who are just starting on opioids,” cautions Scott Strassels, PhD, PharmD, BCPS, assistant professor in the College of Pharmacy at the University of Texas in Austin and a board member of the American Pain Society. “Similarly, methadone is a good analgesic, but it requires very careful use due to its pharmacokinetic profile.”
Healthcare professionals from a variety of disciplines should be involved in pain-management efforts within a hospital setting. As for who takes the initiative, “it probably should be the person who is most qualified—be it a physician, nurse, or pharmacist,” Strassels says. “I’ve seen pharmacist-led teams, nurse-led teams, and those with physicians leading the effort.”
Clinicians who prescribe pain medications should be cognizant of nonpharmacologic alternatives to opioids. Multimodal options include physical therapy, acupuncture, manipulation or massage, and non-narcotic analgesics, such as acetaminophen and muscle relaxants. Non-narcotics may lower the dose of opioids needed to effectively manage pain, according to The Joint Commission.
The alert also provides information on suggested actions to avoid unintended consequences of using opioids. Hospitals should fully inform and provide written instructions to the patient and family or caregiver about the potential risks of tolerance, addiction, physical dependency, and withdrawal from opioids. When providing this information at discharge, the hospital also should list phone numbers to call if there are any questions.
In some unfortunate cases, opioids prescribed for pain also are used by patients’ family members, friends, and others. In such instances, says Northwestern’s Paice, usage occurs commonly with polypharmacy and without monitoring, and this contributes to an increased risk of death associated with opioids.
“There is concern that drugs prescribed for legitimate purposes are reaching the wrong hands,” Paice says. “We need to make the public, particularly patients and their family members, aware of safety strategies.”
Susan Kreimer is a freelance writer in New York City.