title: New health care measures: emphasis on better management of postsurgical pain and postoperative nausea and vomiting.
abstract: Value-based purchasing and the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems are tying patient-centric measures to reimbursements. Hospitals should be particularly concerned about management of postoperative pain and control of postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV), known to adversely impact overall patient satisfaction. Anesthesiologists are likely to be on the frontlines of these transitions. Although postoperative pain is not always effectively managed, clinicians have the pharmacological tools and guidelines for better pain control. Considerable work has been done in PONV to better identify high-risk patients and effective prophylactic agents. Postoperative pain control and preventing PONV are two relatively straightforward ways to respond to new quality metrics. The aim of this review is to raise practitioner awareness of these new quality metrics and provide an overview of the current tools and methods used to improve postoperative pain control and PONV.
authors.affiliation: Adjunct Professor of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD; Associate Professor of Pharmacology, TemplenUniversity School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA.
authors.forename: Joseph V
authors.initials: JV
authors.lastname: Pergolizzi
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pappagallo
authors.forename: JoAnn
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: LeQuang
authors.forename: Sumedha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Labhsetwar
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Taylor
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D010147:Pain Measurement; D010149:Postoperative Pain / Q000517:prevention & control*; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D020250:Postoperative Nausea and Vomiting / Q000517:prevention & control*; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D058996:Quality Improvement; D018570:Risk Assessment; D014481:United States; D062505:Value-Based Purchasing