Category:Chronic Pain

Tips for managing chronic pain

Above is a link to a pdf for "10 Steps to Managing Chronic Pain"

Outpatient/SRC Clinic Controlled Medication Management Policies

1. The Pain Committee is an interdisciplinary committee constructed to adopt the responsibility of pain management for our chronic pain patients, effectively removing individual provider responsibility for e.g., discontinuing a pain contract.
2. Any provider may refer a patient to the Pain Committee by placing a referral in PowerChart/FirstNet (Refer to Pain Committee Internal)
3. Questions regarding pain management issues should be referred to the Chronic Pain Pharmacist, not to individual providers.
4. The Chronic Pain Pharmacist will assist in tracking refills, strikes, expired pain agreement etc.
5. To help reduce the call burden on providers, patients calling with questions about narcotic refills should be referred to the pharmacy.
6. Letters regarding pain management will only be sent out by the Pain Committee, not by individual providers. Any communication regarding agreements being cut off, or warnings really need to come from that entity, not from any specific provider.
7. The Pain Committee, not individual providers, will be in charge of monitoring pain contracts, contract infractions (i.e., strikes), and keeping records. Any information about a positive drug screen etc., can be forwarded to our Chronic Pain Pharmacist.
8. Providers are not responsible for monitoring illegal drug activity. That is a law enforcement issue. Our job as health care providers is to provide compassionate treatment for our patients. Some of the patients will do illegal things with their medication, but let the law enforcement experts deal with that. If you suspect that diversion is occurring, you can report it to the Bethel PD or State Troopers (for villages) and they can investigate.
9. SRC providers may do pain contracts if needed, but may also refer patients to the Pain Committee for recommendations if there are questions. If there are patients who are requesting long term narcotics that you feel uncomfortable with, do not prescribe them and feel free to refer that patient to the Pain Committee.
10. We also have a Suboxone Program for opioid use disorder and you may refer patients for an assessment by the Opioid MAT at 543-6772 (Opioid Case Manager).