“Reimagining chronic pain care: A call for continuity and compassion.”

The Rising Tide of Chronic Pain: Is Our Healthcare System Falling Short?

Over the last few decades, chronic pain has become a public health crisis impacting millions around the globe. This condition goes beyond physical discomfort- it affects emotional well-being, economic stability, and social functioning. While medical science has progressed, little has been done in healthcare systems to ensure significant patient engagement or continuity of care, leaving many patients behind. The growing gap between patient needs and chronic pain management delivery must be closely examined.

The Burden of Chronic Pain

According to James et al. (2019), chronic pain rates about 20% of adults worldwide. 50 million adults in the United States report having chronic pain, 19.6 million of whom have high-impact chronic pain that interferes with daily life and work activities (Dahlhamer et al., 2018). Annual costs of chronic pain management approach staggering sums: in the $560 billion range for direct medical expenses and lost productivity (Gaskin & Richard, 2012).

Chronic pain also causes great psychological distress. Patients frequently complain of feeling isolated, frustrated, and hopeless. Healthcare systems too have a way of causing these feelings to run wild by treating pain as a symptom instead of a condition needing holistic care. Further added to patients’ dissatisfaction and poor outcomes is the lack of individualized, long-term strategies.

Continuity of Care: A Missing Link

Continuity of care is an essential component of good chronic disease management and refers to continuous and coordinated management over time of a patient’s healthcare needs. However, this principle is often not taken into account in chronic pain treatment. The absence of shared medical records and fragmented care, with inconsistent provider interactions, continues to disrupt the patient journey and does provide suboptimal outcomes.

Patients experience greater continuity of care and better outcomes, fewer complaints of pain, and higher satisfaction is found in research (Haggerty et al. 2013). Continuity…