Pain Management
Monitoring
It is important to maintain frequent interaction between the doctor, healthcare team and patient on an ongoing basis to ensure:
- A patient’s pain is assessed at regular intervals, allowing prompt dosage adjustments to assure sustained pain control.
- Any side effects can be treated before they discourage concordance, thus improving the chances of effective long term management of pain.
- Functional outcomes can be evaluated related to pain modulation.
Patient assessment should take place at reasonable intervals, based on the individual circumstances of the patient. The healthcare professionals should review the course of management and any new information about the aetiology of the pain. Continuation or modification of therapy should depend on the physician's evaluation of progress toward stated treatment objectives, such as improvement in the patient's pain intensity and improved physical and/or psychosocial function (e.g. ability to work, need for healthcare resources, activities of daily living and quality of social life). If management goals are not being achieved, despite medication adjustments, the physician should re-evaluate the appropriateness of continued management. The physician should monitor patient concordance in medication usage and related management plans.