Pain Management
IHS Opioid Strategy supports three Essentials of Good Pain Care
- Promotes overall patient wellness through individualized care planning and patient goal-setting that incorporates patient preferences, culturally responsive practices, and community resources
- Uses patient-centered, interdisciplinary and integrated systems to deliver evidence-based care
- Establishes metrics to monitor pain care and outcomes at both the individual and population level
Effectively addressing pain in patients while preventing misuse of opioids are two important challenges faced by health care professionals. This site provides fundamental information to consider when creating patient-centric treatment plans.
Clinicians should follow available clinical practice guidelines and recommendations to support individualized, patient-centered decision making. Clinicians should use caution when prescribing opioids at any dosage, should carefully reassess evidence of individual benefits and risks when considering increasing or continuing opioids. Providers should clearly document risk vs benefit, changes in patient functional status, and applicable monitoring parameters in the individualized care plan.
CDC Clinical Practice Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Pain – CDC November, 2022
IHS Educational Outreach Program (EOP): Pain Management Campaign Released!
Opioid stewardship is a key part of IHS's overall strategy to improve outcomes for patients diagnosed with chronic pain syndrome or opioid use disorder. The EOP mission is to provide frontline clinicians with evidence-based interactive education, to build relationships with healthcare teams, and identify and address system barriers to decrease variability in the use of evidence-based treatments. New evidence-based pain management clinician guide, pocket-references (including opioid de-prescribing), fact sheets, and patient education are now available.
Educational Guide: Managing non-cancer pain in the care of American Indian and Alaska Natives [PDF - 3.9 MB].
The comprehensive Pain Management Campaign Materials are available for download.
NOTICE
Appropriately prescribing opioid medications and managing chronic pain are critically important within the Indian Health Service. In May 2023, the IHS released the revised agency policy on Chronic Pain Management.
The information available on this site is intended for licensed health care professionals and adult patients. However, this site is not a substitute for clinical judgment and does not offer medical advice. Patients should consult their physicians or, in serious cases, contact emergency services. Health care professionals should confirm information available on this site with other sources.
Use of this site is at the user’s risk, and information is provided on an “as is” basis. There is no warranty or guarantee for the information provided on this site.
