Concerns about opioid addiction have made reducing the use of narcotics to manage pain a priority across medicine, especially in an ambulatory setting where patients usually return home in less than 23 hours. As part of those efforts, ASA developed an online CME program that proved to have a great impact in teaching updated approaches to pain management in four specialties in an ambulatory setting.
An outcomes report released in May showed that knowledge and confidence in pain management more than doubled for physicians and other members of treatment teams after completing the program. Still, knowledge and confidence levels have significant room to grow in managing pain following surgery in the ambulatory surgical setting and after procedures in orthopedic surgery, plastic surgery and urologic surgery. Based on pre- and post-assessments of learners who took program, overall confidence and knowledge levels in pain management jumped from 16-35 percent in the four...
