Safe and Sound

Safe and Sound Logo

Each year, tens of thousands of people die from an opioid or medication overdose. Many of them are children.

Cook Children’s Safe and Sound Pain Management Program is dedicated to finding better ways to manage pain in children.

We know that everyone feels pain in different ways. That's why it's important to make sure there are better tools and treatments to control their pain. How? By empowering communities to take charge of medication safety.

We're doing this by educating them on:

Safe dosing
Safe storage
Safe disposal of medications

Together with our Opioid Stewardship Committee, we've also:

Created provider guidelines
Improved staff and family education
Integrated electronic health records
Partnered with community resources

Through these efforts, we're already making great strides. We've reduced the number of opioids prescribed to our patients by half. At the same time, we're providing safer, more effective ways to control pain for children.

Opioid Stewardship Committee Charter: Our mission is to improve patient safety, reduce the risk for potential child addiction, ingestion, misuse, overdose, and death, while promoting best practices through the safe and sound management of pain.

If a poisoning does happen, call the North Texas Poison Center at 1-800-222-1222 (add this number to your cell phone right now). Calls are answered by nurses and pharmacists and 80 percent of them are handled at home, without going to the Emergency Room. Call 9-1-1 if your child won't wake up, is having trouble breathing or is having seizures.

Poison prevention tips Visit meddropbox.org

Approved for opioid CME requirement

(for license renewal after Sep. 2020)

AAP Stats

Engage your patients in choosing nonpharmacologic and low-risk pharmacologic pain management techniques as preferred first-line treatments. Use a pediatric comfort menu to aid in the discussions. The comfort menu is available in both English and Spanish.

Comfort Menu

This tool should be administered to patients upon an initial visit prior to beginning opioid therapy for pain management.

Mark each box that applies	Female	Male
Age between 16-45 years	1	1
History of preadolescent sexual abuse	3	0
Family history of substance abuse
Alcohol	1	3
Illegal drugs	2	3
Prescription drugs	4	4
Personal history of substance abuse
Alcohol	3	3
Illegal drugs	4	4
Prescription drugs	5	5
Psychological disease
ADD, OCD, bipolar, schizophrenia	2	2
Depression	1	1
Scoring totals

A score of 3 or lower indicates low risk for future opioid abuse
A score of 4 to 7 indicates moderate risk for opioid abuse
A score of 8 or higher indicates a high risk for opioid abuse

Questionnaire developed by Lynn R. Webster, MD to assess risk of opioid addiction.

Webster LR, Webster R. Predicting aberrant behaviors in opioid-treated patients: preliminary validation of the opioid risk tool. Pain Med. 2005; 6 (6):432

Other Evidence-Based Screening Tools:

Clinician Tools - SBIRT for Substance Abuse
SBIRT = Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment

Prescribing Best Practices

A complete pain care plan includes assessing and addressing psychosocial aspects of pain such as stress, distress anxiety, and depression. The following list contains programs that can assist with coping strategies, behavioral modification, or chemical dependencies.

For questions, contact Psychiatry Intake at 682-885-3917

Facility referral list

Texas Prescription Monitoring Program

The Texas Prescription Monitoring Program (PMP) is an electronic database used to collect and monitor prescription data for all controlled substances dispensed by a pharmacy in Texas or to a Texas resident from a pharmacy located in another state. The PMP also provides a venue for monitoring patient prescription history to eliminate duplication or overprescribing of controlled substances.

Website:  AWARxE
Video:  How to Use
Support:  844-489-4767
Quick reference guide
Frequently asked questions

March 1, 2020: Mandatory Review of PMP

Regulations mandate accessing the Prescription Monitoring Program (PMP) before prescribing or dispensing opioids, benzodiazepines, barbiturates, or carisoprodol. Source: Texas House Bill 3284 and 2561

Exceptions can be made when the prescriber clearly notes that the prescription is for a patient diagnosed with cancer, hospice care, or sickle cell anemia. Source: Texas House Bill 2561 and Senate Bill 1564

Safe and Sound

Each year, tens of thousands of people die from an opioid or medication overdose. Many of them are children.

Disposal and Poison Prevention

Education

Approved for opioid CME requirement

Nursing education

Provider education

Opioid epidemic resources

Complementary Therapies

Comfort Menu

Opioid Risk Assessment Tool

Other Evidence-Based Screening Tools:

Pharmacologic Pain Therapies

Prescribing Guidelines

Substance Abuse & Psychosocial Treatment

Texas Prescription Monitoring Program

References for Healthcare Providers