Boards urged to improve pain management
Authorities key in bringing about change
The Compassion in Dying Federation has launched a national effort to enlist medical licensing boards in its battle to improve pain management.
According to the organization, which strives improve end-of-life care, too many people suffer unnecessary pain, and medical treatment of pain is often deplorable. Medical licensing authorities are key to achieving necessary changes.
The Portland, OR-based organization wrote a letter to the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) and each state’s medical board. That letter follows a 1998 letter to the same recipients detailing significant inadequacies in pain management across the nation and concrete steps FSMB and state boards should take to improve pain management.
"Too often, medical boards close their eyes and fail to make physicians accountable for woeful undertreatment of their patients’ pain," says Kathryn Tucker, director of legal affairs for Compassion in Dying Federation.
Formal complaints filed
In 1998, medical licensing boards responded by saying they never hear of cases in which patients are inadequately treated for pain in their jurisdictions. In response, Compassion in Dying officials have helped patients and families prepare formal complaints of inadequate pain care and present them, along with expert opinions, to state medical boards.
In March, the organization announced its second complaint presented to the Medical Board of California (MBC). That complaint involves the treatment of a 14-year-old boy hospitalized with excruciating headache pain and treated with placebos instead of real pain medication. The family recently filed complaints with the MBC and the California Board of Registered Nursing.
Compassion in Dying Federation’s first complaint to the MBC — involving 85-year-old cancer patient William Bergman, whose terminal cancer pain went untreated — failed to draw a response from the MBC. The case received national attention when it was featured on NBC’s news magazine, "Dateline."
Bergman’s family filed suit in California state court asserting that the lack of pain treatment constituted elder abuse. On a 10-point scale, Bergman was complaining of pain ranging from 7 to 10 while in the hospital. Another physician later prescribed pain medication, and the patient was discharged to die at home. He died the next day.
The trial was expected to begin in March but has been delayed until November.
"These cases are typical of many we review through our pain management and advocacy efforts," the letter states. "We know there are thousands we never see. We are working hard to increase the tempo of response to the problems reflected in the stories above."
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