NASEM Committee to Identify Gaps in Clinical Practice Guidelines for Acute Pain Opioid Prescriptions

On July 9th, 2019, the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) hosted an ad hoc committee on Clinical Practice Guidelines for Prescribing Opioids for Acute Pain. On behalf of the Academy of Sciences, the committee will develop a framework to evaluate existing clinical practice guidelines for prescribing opioids for acute pain and give recommendations for developing new guidelines.

The panel invited doctors specializing in cesarean sections and vaginal deliveries, knee replacement surgery and wisdom teeth extraction to speak at the workshop. Each doctor emphasized that there are few guidelines currently in place that address administration of pain medication after each procedure. This highlights the need for standardized guidelines for each procedure or individualized patient treatment based on in-hospital use of pain medication to minimize opioid prescriptions. The doctors acknowledged that high pain cases may still need opioid prescriptions, but other surgeries, such as standard wisdom teeth removal, can use different forms of pain medication without sacrificing patient comfort.

Lastly, the workshop hosted two individuals from the Mayo Clinic and OptumLabs. Their discussion centered on the implementation of national guidelines regulating the length and dosage of opioid prescriptions regardless of procedure. The Mayo Clinic disagreed with this practice, stating that many procedures and hospitals need their own regulations and therefore clinical prescribing guidelines should vary by procedure. OptumLabs was in favor of implementing national guidelines as a start to tackling opioid prescribing problems, mentioning that these guidelines need not apply to chronic pain opioid users. 

Other articles in the August 2019 ePolicy News:

ASCP Urges Anthem to Reconsider Cuts to Pathology, Laboratory Rates
CMS (Finally) Releases 2020 CY Physician Fee Schedule
ACLA Scores Major Legal Win in PAMA Lawsuit
Cervical Cancer Risk Guidelines Public Comment Now Open

To read more articles from ePolicy News click here.

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