Collaboration of ACS, AAOS, AANS, and HCSC on Pain Control Patient Education Program

Safe Opioid Use in Surgery: A Team-based-approach

View the Webinar, Gain CME credit, and help satisfy your self-reporting for the MATE Act.

Speakers

For the American College of Surgeons:

Jonah J. Stulberg, MD, PhD, MPH, FACS
Vice Chair of Research
Program Director, Complex Abdominal Wall Reconstruction Fellowship
Director, Texas Hernia Center
Associate Professor of Surgery
Department of Surgery

For Health Care Services Corporation:

Ben Kurian, MD
Executive Medical Director
Risk Identification & Outreach Program
Health Care Services Corporation

For the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons:

Mary F. Carnduff, MD, MBA, FAAOS
Military Assistant to the Under Secretary of the Air Force, Pentagon
Washington DC

For the American Association of Neurological Surgeons:

Owoicho Adogwa, MD, MPH
Assistant Professor, Department of Neurosurgery
University of Cincinnati

Description

More than 70% of patients awaiting musculoskeletal surgery experience pain that interferes with daily functioning, including difficulty going up or down stairs, stiffness, swelling, pain in bed, and avoiding exercise.¹ It is estimated that 10%-15% of these patients use opioids intermittently to help manage their pain.^2,3

The American College of Surgeons (ACS) has launched a new program that will provide patients undergoing musculoskeletal surgery with comprehensive pain control educational materials to reduce their risk of developing opioid dependency. The ACS, in collaboration with Health Care Services Corporation (HCSC), the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons (AAOS), and the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS), will distribute safe pain control education programs to patients having non-emergency hip and knee replacement surgeries, or certain forms of spine surgery.

Faculty representatives from AAOS and AANS will also highlight resources for both professionals and patients to contribute to this collaboration and decrease long-term postsurgical opioid use. Surgeons are encouraged to utilize the new Safe Pain Control website in their practice and with their patients.  

The objectives of this webinar are:

1. Describe the impact of patient education and reinforced messaging to reduce long-term opioid use in surgical patients.
2. Identify professional association and insurance provider resources (such as perioperative interventions) used to enhance recovery and reduce opioids after hip, knee, and spine surgeries.
3. Describe how to incorporate Safe Pain Control programs into your clinical practice and participate in a quality improvement program.
4. Align professional pain management practices with current guidelines for opioid reduction.

Target Audience: This activity is intended for surgeons and members of the surgical team (preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative).

This webinar aired on Wednesday, August 23 at 5:00 pm CT. If you wish to obtain 1 hour of CME, you will have to log in to learning.facs.org and pay a processing fee of $10, in addition to taking a pre- and posttest and completing an evaluation.

Contact

• If you have any questions about the course, please contact Tarra Barot, at tbarot@facs.org.
• For any technical questions, please contact us at learning@facs.org.

References

1. Nguyen U-S D, Ayers DC, Li W, et al. Preoperative pain and function: profiles of patients selected for total knee replacement. J Arthroplasty. 2016;31(11):2402-2407.e2
2. Ravi B, Pincus D, Croxford R, et al. Patterns of pre-operative opioid use affect the risk for complications after total joint replacement. Sci Rep. 2021;11:22124.
3. Naylor JM, Pavlovic N, Farrugia M, et al. Associations between pre-surgical daily opioid use and short term outcomes following knee or hip arthroplasty: a prospective, exploratory cohort study. BMC musculoskeletal disorders. 2020;21:398.