Anesthesia

A study published in Annals of Internal Medicine examined outpatient opioid prescriptions and found nearly 30 percent were prescribed without clinical justification.

Surgical Information Systems outlined "five rights" of medication administration for clinical teams and anesthesia providers to improve medication and surgery safety in the OR.

Walter Wofford, MD, is the newest full-time physician at Mount Airy, N.C.-based Northern Hospital of Surry County's Pain Management facility in Elkin, N.C., The Mount Airy News reports.

Medical device companies have until Sept. 30 to enter the FDA's medical device challenge, a contest rewarding the development of opioid-free pain management technologies, Pain News Network reports.

Patients treated with diclofenac experienced a greater risk of heart problems than patients treated with paracetamol or other traditional non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, according to a study published in the BMJ.

A grand jury unsealed an indictment charging anesthesiologist Stephen Kyo-Sung Kim, MD, with murder for the death of his physician patient, NBC4 reports.

Aetna agreed to cover Abbott's neurostimulation pain therapy implant under a new national policy.

Emerging approaches to using nerve blocks for acute pain improve surgical outcomes, but they also create coding and billing challenges for anesthesia practices, according to Anesthesia Business Consultants President and CEO Tony Mira.

ASCs' efforts to reduce postoperative pain and opioid dependence include using less long-acting anesthesia, administering non-opioid medications in the operating room and using postoperative pain blocks that gradually wear off, according to Maura Dent Cash, RN.

Olean (N.Y.) General Hospital's board of directors released a statement affirming the hospital's decision to drop Olean-based Southern Tier Anesthesiologists, the Olean Times Herald reports.