The Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association (MHA), the state’s hospital and healthcare system industry group, is partnering with a British pharmaceutical company on an initiative to reduce the use of opioids for pain management in hospital settings.
The Pain Stewardship Program was developed by a task force of the MHA and Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals, to educate hospital stakeholders on the use of analgesic medicines and non-drug techniques for acute pain management, with less reliance on opioids.
The method is known as multimodal analgesia (MMA)-based acute pain management. The MHA said in a statement Wednesday the program will “support improvements in in-hospital opioid use, length of stay and satisfaction with treatment.”
The program provides evidence-based, educational pain management tools to help assess current hospital protocols and identify areas for improvement, according to the MHA. Pain Stewardship Program materials will be available to organizations and patients at www.PainStewardship.com.
