Joint Commission issues statement on pain management standards

Editor's Note

In today’s opioid epidemic, people are looking for a scapegoat, and often it is the Joint Commission’s pain standards that take the blame, says David W. Baker, MD, MPH, FACP, in response to an April 13 letter from five dozen nonprofit groups and medical experts laying out issues they have with the standards.

Despite the stability and simplicity of the standards, misconceptions persist, says Dr Baker, the Joint Commission’s executive vice president of healthcare quality evaluation.

Among the misconceptions are that the standards:

• endorse pain as a vital sign
• require pain assessment for all patients
• require that pain be treated until the pain score reaches zero
• push physicians to prescribe opioids
• caused a sharp rise in opioid prescriptions.

Statement on pain management from David W. Baker, MD, MPH, FACP, Executive Vice President, Healthcare Quality Evaluation, The Joint Commission: In the environment of today's prescription opioid epidemic, everyone is looking for someone to blame. Often, The Joint Commission's pain standards take that blame.