Pain Management

Your Comfort Care Plan During your Hospital Stay and when Discharged Home

This may apply to both surgical and medical patients.

Before you are admitted to the hospital, continue to take your medications as prescribed by your doctors. Please bring all the medications you currently take with you to the hospital, including your painkillers.

Your healthcare team (doctors, nurses and pharmacists) will review all your medications (including the ones you take for pain). Steps will be taken to make sure that all the medications you need (including the ones you brought from home) are being looked after while staying at the hospital.

While taking the medications, your team will make sure you are receiving the proper dose for the best pain relief. You may ask your pharmacist to print a list of medications you are taking as an in-patient. Your pharmacist will be happy to go over them with you.

In addition to all other medications, painkillers can be given by mouth, direct injection into veins, by patch to the skin, patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) where the patient controls the amount of painkiller to give over an allowable period of time, or through the spine. Your nurse or pharmacist can explain to you the times you are scheduled to receive medications.

When planning your discharge or transfer, your pharmacist can make a list of all the medications you are leaving with. He/She will go through your medications with you before you leave the hospital.

The chart you see below is an example of the medication list that will be given to you.

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