San Diego County Opioid Prescribing Summit –
Safe Pain Medication Guidelines approved by San Diego County Medical Society and the Emergency Community of San Diego and Imperial County.
On February 2013 the emergency department leaders of every emergency department in San Diego and Imperial County gathered for a historical meeting to approve pain medication guidelines for the emergency department. The guidelines are based on the "Oxy Free" Model of Washington State. The principles of the guidelines were that we wanted a unified document for all the emergency departments and for all the emergency providers. We wanted to avoid the "candy man" or "candy land" phenomenon of having some docs or EDs proving more opioids. The guidelines are pending endorsement from the San Diego and Imperial Health Department and Hospital Association. The goal is that every ED will have a sign a similar sign in the waiting room listing the 10 Principles that were adopted.
Safe Pain Medicine Prescribing in the Emergency Department
We care about you. We are committed to treating you safely and in the right way. Pain relief treatment can be complicated. Mistakes or abuse of pain medicine can cause serious health problems and death. Our emergency department will only provide pain relief options that are safe and correct.
For your SAFETY, we follow these rules when helping you with your pain.
1. We look for and treat emergencies. We use our best judgment when treating pain. These recommendations follow legal and ethical advice.
2. You should only have ONE provider and ONE pharmacy helping you with pain. We do not usually prescribe pain medicine if you already receive pain medicine from another health care provider.
3. If pain prescriptions are needed for pain, we can only give you enough medicine to last you until you can contact your doctor.
4. We do not refill stolen prescriptions. We do not refill lost prescriptions. If your prescription is stolen, please contact the police
5. We do not prescribe these long acting pain medicines: OxyContin, MSContin, Dilaudid, Fentanyl (Duragesic), Methadone, Opana ER, Exalgo, and Others.
6. We do not provide missing doses of Subutex, Suboxone, or Methadone.
7. We do not usually give shots for flare-ups of chronic pain. Medicines taken by mouth may be given instead.
8. Health care laws, including HIPAA, allow us to ask you for your medical records. These laws allow us to share information with other health providers who are treating you.
9. We may ask you to show a photo ID when you receive a prescription for pain medicines.
10. We use the California Prescription Drug Monitoring Program called CURES. This system keeps track of narcotic and other controlled substance prescriptions.
If you need help with substance abuse or addition, please call 1-888-724-7240 for confidential referral and treatment.