40.996             Appropriate Role of Pain Assessment in the Clinical Environment

(See also Hospitals, 150.000)

 

40.996             Appropriate Role of Pain Assessment in the Clinical Environment

The Medical Society of the State of New York publically states that the ongoing focus on pain, pain assessment, and pain management is contributing to the opioid epidemic; and that pain needs to be evaluated and treated within a medical model that addresses underlying pathophysiology and, when possible, addresses the source.  MSSNY supports discontinuation of the use of pain as a metric to evaluate physicians and hospitals by accrediting organizations such as the Joint Commission.  MSSNY will lobby the New York Legislature to have the use of pain as a 5th vital sign removed from both the clinical environment and all evaluator metrics in the State of New York. (HOD 2017-161)