Building a pain-free hospital by leveraging the strengths of pain physicians

  Pain is an extremely complex physiological and pathological process, and modern medicine considers pain as the fifth most important vital sign after body temperature, pulse, blood pressure and heart rate, and one of the common clinical symptoms. For patients, sometimes it is more urgent to relieve pain than to solve the disease. Therefore, as a medical worker in the new era, we should pay more attention to the impact of pain on human physical and mental health and strengthen the awareness of pain treatment, which requires the advantages of anesthesiology and the establishment of pain-free hospitals to relieve the pain existing in the field of medical services.  1.Understanding pain and the impact of pain on human health With the progress of modern medicine, people’s awareness of the harm of pain has been further deepened, and the development of social economy and the improvement and enhancement of the quality of human existence, people’s demand for the treatment of painful diseases has been increasing. Modern medicine is a patient-centered medical model, and pain-free treatment has naturally become a direction of medical development. More and more experimental and clinical studies have shown that strengthening the construction and management of pain management practice is very important to reduce or eliminate pain, easily remove the disease, improve the quality of life of patients, and enhance their confidence in life. Therefore, every clinical worker should take advantage of the possible conditions and resources to actively diagnose and treat pain.  According to statistics, 35-40 million people in the United States suffer from pain each year due to sick leave, compensation, and lawsuit costs, which amount to billions of dollars annually. The effects of pain hazards include: delaying wound healing; affecting the body’s immune system; and altering the stress response and functional status of the autonomic nervous system. Studies have shown that in the absence of perfect pain relief, a small skin incision can cause changes in the anterior horn of the spinal cord, which can cause permanent changes in the anterior horn of the spinal cord, resulting in “impressionistic” changes in the peripheral and central nervous system, leading to conditions such as chronic pain syndrome. Some people even use it to sharpen their character and increase their courage, and some people think that excessive use of pain medication is not beneficial to the healing of trauma, which is one-sided. From the physiopathological point of view, pain has a great influence on the circulatory function, respiratory function and immune function of patients. Pain can increase the patient’s blood pressure and heart rate, increase the oxygen consumption of important organs, and increase the incidence of heart and brain stroke. The pain can affect the cough reflex and easily cause lung infection, increase the risk of perioperative period and affect the postoperative recovery, etc.  2.The need to develop painless service and establish painless hospital The traditional medical model is disease-centered and believes that painful examination and treatment are inevitable. Painful examination and treatment require relaxation and cooperation of the body. If the muscle tension and reaction to pain are too strong, it will not only increase the examination and treatment time, but also affect the medical staff’s treatment of sensitive parts.  Painless treatment can provide more comprehensive examination and treatment for more people, and through painless technology, the oldest patient of gastrointestinal examination has reached 96 years old, which in the past, endoscopists were unwilling and afraid to involve. Painless treatment provides safety for patients with cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases or those who are highly nervous, and can reduce the body’s reaction to adverse stimuli, so that the body can maintain a smoother running state.  The initial model of “pain-free hospital” is that hospital managers attach great importance to pain-free treatment, medical staff actively carry out pain-free treatment, and through positive publicity, patients and their families actively request pain-free treatment. Pain-free hospital needs to rely on the hospital’s strong comprehensive strength and strong technical support, give full play to the technical advantages of anesthesiologists, leave the operating room and participate more in clinical work, continuously adopt new technology and new equipment to control the pain caused by various examinations and treatments, so that patients can quietly cooperate in the process of painful operations and eliminate pain; at the same time, diagnose and treat acute, chronic and intractable painful diseases in the clinic. Many hospitals have therefore opened pain clinics to provide targeted treatment for common pain disorders such as vascular or neuropathic migraine, cervical spondylosis, lumbar disc herniation, osteophytes, and pain caused by acute sprains and contusions.  At present, both foreign and domestic large hospitals have a positive attitude towards pain-free treatment business, and many hospitals have set up special pain-free treatment centers to focus on providing services to patients with pain-free needs, but of course, it is especially important to evaluate each patient, especially senior patients, before surgery.  At present, Zibo Third Hospital is one of the first hospitals in the province to carry out postoperative analgesia and painless abortion, and painless delivery, painless gastroscopy and sedation and analgesia for minor surgical procedures are also gradually gaining attention in clinical practice. management. Based on the popularity of postoperative analgesia and painless abortion with patients and families, we can foresee that painless services in other areas will be equally well received.