Survey says: Hospitals not treating pain sufficiently

I really appreciate the public awareness that this website offers. I use some of the research for my weekly radio show here in Kansas City. I am a Chiropractor who owns a large practice in the KC area and has a post-doctoral degree in wellness. I have one question when it comes to pain management: Why aren't chiropractors part of the equation for ALL musculo-skeletal complaints? We work very well with the pain management specialists here in KC but why isn't that standard across the country? There are hundreds of RCTs that show how effective we are at palliative care. Just wondering.

I really appreciate the public awareness that this website offers. I use some of the research for my weekly radio show here in Kansas City. I am a Chiropractor who owns a large practice in the KC area and has a post-doctoral degree in wellness. I have one question when it comes to pain management: Why aren't chiropractors part of the equation for ALL musculo-skeletal complaints? We work very well with the pain management specialists here in KC but why isn't that standard across the country? There are hundreds of RCTs that show how effective we are at palliative care. Just wondering.

I have to agree 100% with regard to lack of adequate pain management in US Hospitals, and some states are worse than others. There are currently five States that have laws on the books that protect Pain Management Physicians when dispensing high doses of strong narcotics. They are Washington State, Oregon, California, Texas and I believe Florida was the 5th, although I have been reading articles where patients in severe pain are not getting adequate pain management. And it is a rare Emergency Department that adequately treats a chronic pain patient who's pain has flared up and they have been directed by their PCP, Pain Physician or On Call RN to go to the ED for treatment of the pain. In almost every Emergency Department Physician is a "Contractor" and therefore feel they do not have to follow JCAHO's Pain Management Guidelines. I was just in the hospital with a Staph/MRSA infection. When they were going to release me, I filed an Appeal with Medicare *LUMETRA" because I felt I was being released too soon. I was shocked to find they ruled in my favor and felt I needed better pain management. Because the floor Case Manager wanted to have me discharged, when she returned on Monday to find my case had been ruled in my favor, she immediately called the Pain Physician who had been treating me, who had also cut half my meds out, so he came flying into my room, further reduced my pain meds and ordered Methadone, a pain med I told him that had been used on me early in my treatment for RSD/CRPS and it was of little use. I decided to go home, and later learned the hospital was supposed to provide me one more round of IV Antibiotics for the Staph/MRSA. I now need to contact the hospital and file a complaint and copy LUMETRA and inform them what happened.

So many ED Physicians who are not trained in Pain Management seek to freak out when it comes to treating a patient who suffers from a Chronic Pain Disease and care only about their "comfort zone" when the meds they do prescribe are so small compared to my regular pain doses.