The Joint Commission and the Opioid Epidemic

To the Editor The Viewpoint on the history of The Joint Commission’s pain standards¹ presented 4 lessons the organization learned to help address the current opioid epidemic. However, we believe that these lessons do not go far enough in evaluating The Joint Commission’s involvement in the opioid epidemic.

First, Dr Baker stated that The Joint Commission’s 2000 standards for pain management “were a bold attempt to address widespread underassessment and undertreatment of pain.”¹ However, there was no clamor within the health care community for such a regulatory-based approach to pain management.