Opioid administration has been long been a means to control both acute and chronic pain but this class of medication cannot be administered without risk. In August 2012, the Joint Commission issued a Sentinel Event Alert related to Safe Use of Opioids in Hospitals1 and in 2018 retired this Sentinel Event Alert and in its stead, published the R3 Report Issue 11: Pain Assessment and Management Standards for Hospitals that addressed the need to “identify and acquire the equipment needed to monitor a patient who is at high risk for adverse outcomes from opioid treatment.” 2
Most recently, The American Society for Pain Management Nursing (ASPMN) published their 2020 Guidelines on Monitoring for Opioid-Induced Advancing Sedation and Respiratory Depression: Revisions3. The Guidelines discuss that >50% of inpatients receive some form of opioid and that between 0.003% to 4.2% of those patients will have either received a dose of naloxone (an opioid reversal agent) or had an opioid-related adverse event diagnosis code. Additionally, the Guidelines note that “there is consistent agreement among published guidelines that the frequency, intensity, and duration of monitoring should be based on the type of opioid therapy, patient risk factors, and response to treatment; and that current nursing assessments every 4 hours may not be adequate for early detection of opioid-induced adverse events”1
By using the ViSi Mobile surveillance monitoring system by Sotera Wireless, patient core vital signs can be monitored remotely to identify patient deterioration related to medication side effects, developing conditions such as new-onset atrial fibrillation, and can even tell you if your patient has fallen.
ViSi Mobile improves patient safety by utilizing machine learning from millions of hours of patient data to recognize patient deterioration while minimizing alarm burden and maximizing clinical workflow. The ViSi Mobile System Monitors:
- Continuous Non-Invasive Blood Pressure
- Skin temperature
- SpO2
- ECG
- Heart Rate
- Posture
- Pulse Rate
- Arrhythmias
- Respiration Rate
- Fall Detection
- The Joint Commission (2012). Sentinel Event Alert 49: The Safe Use of Opioids in Hospitals. Retrieved 10/15/2021 from https://www.jointcommission.org/resources/patient-safety-topics/sentinel-event/sentinel-event-alert-newsletters/sentinel-event-alert-issue-49-safe-use-of-opioids-in-hospitals/
- The Joint Commission (2018). R3 Report Issue 11: Pain Assessment and Management Standards for Hospitals. Retrieved 10/15/2021 from https://www.jointcommission.org/-/media/tjc/documents/standards/r3-reports/r3_report_issue_11_2_11_19_rev.pdf
- Jungquist, et al. (2020). American Society for Pain Management Nursing (ASPMN) Guidelines on Monitoring for Opioid-Induced Advancing Sedation and Respiratory Depression: Revisions. Pain Management Nursing 21 (2020) 7-25.