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P A I N
M A N A G E M E N T
Ballantyne. "Don't send people home with 2 weeks' worth of opiates
when you can predict that they're only going to need 3 days. Anybody
who's at risk, by the time they get to week 2, is already going to be struggling with control issues. ... But doctors don't want to be disturbed in the
night, so they'd rather give too much than too little."
That issue, too, is one the Andrews Center is tackling. "About 50 to
55% of our blocks are continuous catheters," says Dr. Hickman. "That
greatly reduces your narcotics post-op. Most of our shoulder cases
don't take narcotics at all, even after they're discharged and go home.
And every patient who has a continuous catheter has all our cell
phone numbers. So our surgeons aren't worried about getting calls or
overprescribing." OSM
E-mail jb urg er@outpa tientsurg ery.net.
