Safe Use of Opioids

Opioid analgesics are the drugs that are associated most frequently with adverse drug events.

Because pain management is so critical to our patients, assessing and effectively managing pain is a huge part of our focus as healthcare providers; but avoiding the harm that can go along with the use of these powerful drugs is equally as critical. What can we do to implement the best practices to prevent harm to our patients? Of course the answer is education! Through education on the best practices, we can reduce the numbers of serious complications or even deaths from opioid administration.

The Joint Commission recommends that hospitals educate staff about the evidence-based actions recommended in this Alert. You can read the recommendations contained in this Alert about the actions we can take by reading the entire news article here.

To read the rest of this article CLICK HERE.