Journal of pain & palliative care pharmacotherapy
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J Pain Palliat Care Pharmacother · Jun 2018
Things to Consider When Completing an Advance Directive.
Questions from patients about pain conditions and analgesic pharmacotherapy and responses from authors are presented to help educate patients and make them more effective self-advocates. In response to a question about advance directives for a patient experiencing chronic pain, the authors discuss the importance of having legal documents in place.
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J Pain Palliat Care Pharmacother · Jun 2018
ReviewPublic Policy: An Analgesia for Opioid Diversion.
Although opioids are a commonly prescribed form of analgesics among the armamentarium for their efficacy and safety when used responsibly, societal problems of drug diversion are highly prevalent. This review seeks to examine the importance of opioids and the extent of diversion and its impact, drawbacks, and controversies in law, public policies, and strategies. In particular, the law has skewed its focus toward the regulation of opioid suppliers (as compared to consumers), giving rise to a chilling effect where physicians are hesitant to prescribe opioids to patients with legitimate needs. ⋯ This article recommends the intelligent use of public policy to alleviate the opioid diversion problem while acknowledging the importance of appropriate pain management. Concurrently, this article recommends providing continuous education and support for physicians, dispensers, and the like and adoption of soft law approaches by legislators and enforcement bodies to prevent relentless clamping down on opioid abusers. In conclusion, appropriate policies and guidelines are necessary to support the entire health care body in executing a coordinated approach and exercising vigilance to better manage the opioid diversion problem.
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J Pain Palliat Care Pharmacother · Jun 2018
Natural Language Processing-Identified Problem Opioid Use and Its Associated Health Care Costs.
Use of prescription opioids and problems of abuse and addiction have increased over the past decade. Claims-based studies have documented substantial economic burden of opioid abuse. This study utilized electronic health record (EHR) data to identify chronic opioid therapy (COT) patients with problem opioid use (POU) and compared costs with those for COT patients without POU. ⋯ The largest cost difference was observed in the first month of follow-up. COT patients with POU experienced significantly higher costs compared with COT patients without POU in the first year of follow-up. The greatest difference in costs was observed around identification of POU.
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J Pain Palliat Care Pharmacother · Jun 2018
A Cost and Quality Analysis of Utilizing a Rectal Catheter for Medication Administration in End-of-Life Symptom Management.
Technology that can improve the ability to provide quick symptom control while decreasing the cost and burden of care could help hospice agencies deal with current hospice industry challenges. This paper describes how the use of a new rectal medication delivery technology at a large hospice in western New York has improved patient care and nursing efficiency while at the same time decreasing the cost of care.