Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Special Edition: Opioids - January 2020 - Subscribe to Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.

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5 4 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 0 O ne of our facili- ty's surgeons is well known for sending patients home after surgery with 3 opioid pills. That's it. His patients are initially surprised and wonder if that will be enough to relieve their pain, but it usually is. The surgeon makes sure patients have rea- sonable expectations about how they'll feel after surgery and assures them that the 3 pills will carry them through their recov- ery. He has a proven pain man- agement plan, and sticks to it. Many of our facility's other surgeons follow his lead, rarely prescribing more than a 5- to 7- day supply of painkillers. Their efforts are at the forefront of our facil- ity's comprehensive approach to opioid-sparing patient care, which is very similar to the ones contained in the Safe Opioid Use Toolkit for ASCs distributed to members of the California Ambulatory Surgery Association (CASA) and ensures the painkillers are used effectively, appropriately and safely. Carrie Millsap | Monterey, Calif. Planning for Proper Pain Management Efforts to reduce patients' reliance on post-op opioids should begin before they show up for surgery. • TEACHABLE MOMENTS Surgeons at Monterey (Calif.) Peninsula Surgery Center give patients brochures about safe opioid use before their surgeries and answer any questions they have about opioid-sparing analgesia. Monterey (Calif.) Peninsula Surgery Center

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