Clinical pharmacy
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Review Practice Guideline Guideline
Acute pain management: operative or medical procedures and trauma, Part 2. Agency for Health Care Policy and Research.
Summary recommendations 1-5 and 7 should be implemented in every hospital where operations are performed on inpatients. The Acute Pain Management Guideline Panel recommends that any hospital in which abdominal or thoracic operations are routinely performed offer patients postoperative regional anesthetic, epidural or intrathecal opioids, PCA infusions, and other interventions requiring a similar level of expertise, under the supervision of an acute pain service as described in summary recommendation 6. For pain management to be effective, each hospital must designate who or which department will be responsible for all of the required activities. ⋯ Define pain and relief levels to trigger a review. Each institution should identify pain intensity and pain relief levels that will elicit a review of the current pain therapy, documentation of the proposed modifications in treatment, and subsequent review of its efficacy. This process of treatment review and follow-up should include participation by physicians and nurses involved in the patient's care.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)