Pain Management Toolkit for Chronic and Acute Pain Released

The Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC) published a Pain Management Toolkit in March 2020 to inform providers on best practices for treating both acute and chronic pain, according to a press release.¹

The AAAHC stated its goal for this resource is to drive quality improvement in both primary care and surgical practices. The toolkit details pain management strategies for both chronic pain patients and acute surgical- or procedural-related pain, as well as postoperative pain management.¹

The toolkit includes up-to-date information for staff education and process standardization to achieve consistent pain management strategies. There are also materials to facilitate discussion of key issues throughout pain management process, including care transitions from surgical and primary care environments, the prevalence of opioid prescriptions, and national recommendations for opioids and their alternatives.¹

“The content stresses that the primary aim of pain management is to improve physical function, while allowing rehabilitation and maintaining patient comfort. It is not about achieving a specific pain score,” said Naomi Kuznets, PhD, vice president and senior director of the AAAHC Institute for Quality Improvement.¹

The AAAHC emphasized the toolkit’s role in providing information to primary care and surgical providers who serve the millions of US adults who face chronic pain, the top cause for long-term disability,² or acute pain, for which >80% of postoperative patients do not have appropriate management.³

“Our toolkits and other educational offerings assist organizations with developing best practices and improving patient outcomes,” said Renee Greenfeld, MBA, senior vice president of marketing and business development for AAAHC.¹

To order the AAAHC’s Pain Management Toolkit, click here.

References

1. AAAHC publishes new resource for pain management.News release. Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care; March 10, 2020. Accessed September 10, 2020. https://www.aaahc.org/aaahc-publishes-new-resource-for-pain-management/
2. Pain Management Fact Sheet. National Institutes of Health. Accessed September 10, 2020.https://www.ninr.nih.gov/sites/files/docs/painmanagementninr.pdf.
3. Gan TJ. Poorly controlled postoperative pain: prevalence, consequences, and prevention. J Pain Res. 2017;10:2287-2298. doi:10.2147/JPR.S144066

This article originally appeared on Clinical Advisor