Name
VA Best Practices: S.T.O.P. P.A.I.N Initiative and Practice Guidelines
Date & Time
Monday, April 2, 2018, 2:15 PM - 4:15 PM
A. Lucile Burgo-Black Julianne Himstreet Elizabeth Oliva Friedhelm Sandbrink Karen Drexler
Description
Moderator: Elizabeth Oliva, PhD, VA National Opioid Overdose Education and Naloxone Distribution Coordinator, Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administration

CE Certified By: AMA,AAFP,ACPE,ADA,ANCC

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) recently launched a S.T.O.P. P.A.I.N. initiative to highlight VA’s eight best practices to help stem the opioid crisis. This workshop will describe these practices with the goal of equipping attendees with actionable approaches to integrate into their healthcare system or clinical practice.

Presenters will drill deeper into the topic of practice guidelines to address the opioid prescriber’s dilemma: how to translate evidence to provide safe, patient-centered care. Increased understanding of the risks associated with opioid prescribing has led to significant changes in guidelines for prescribing opioids (e.g., Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2016; VA/Department of Defense, 2017), calling for tools and resources to help translate these guidelines into practice, particularly for practitioners who may not be specialists. There is some concern that adherence to guideline recommendations (e.g., recommended doses) without proper training/guidance in tapering may increase risk of overdose, cause inadvertent pain and suffering for patients, and damage provider-patient relationships. Drawing from the VA’s extensive experience, the presenters’ goals are to provide:
1. VA tools and resources based on recent guidelines and the evidence base to help opioid prescribers and their treatment teams implement guideline-concordant care in a safe and humane patient-centered fashion.
2. Examples and models of implementation in different clinical settings (e.g., primary care, emergency department), including such tools as the “Acute Pain Clinician’s Guide,” “Chronic Pain Clinician’s Guide,” and “Opioid Taper Tool.”

UPON COMPLETION OF THIS COURSE, PARTICIPANTS WILL BE ABLE TO:
- Recognize the need to take a comprehensive, multifaceted and multidisciplinary approach to address the opioid crisis.
- Describe elements of VA’s S.T.O.P. P.A.I.N. initiative — comprised of eight best practices that reflect VA’s comprehensive, multidisciplinary healthcare system approach to addressing the opioid crisis.
- Identify tools and resources to support integration of S.T.O.P. P.A.I.N. best practices into diverse clinical practices and healthcare settings.
- Identify tools and resources to help opioid prescribers and their treatment teams implement guideline-concordant care in a safe and humane patient-centered fashion.
- Explain examples and models of guideline implementation in different clinical settings.
- Apply information and tools from the workshop to help implement guideline-concordant care in a safe and humane patient-centered manner into participants’ clinical practice.
Location Name
Courtland
Full Address
Hyatt Regency Atlanta
265 Peachtree St NE
Atlanta, Georgia 30303
United States