When pain patients come to a CCWV facility, they receive a thorough assessment of their condition and the need for pain medications.  If the patient has not received recent diagnostic confirmation of his/her condition, then a new round of testing may be requested from the patient’s primary care provider. Once that is complete and the results of this testing support a diagnosis of chronic pain, then a referral to the program can be made. If not, alternative means of pain management will be offered and explored, including but not limited to weight loss counseling, referrals to physical therapy, and trials on less powerful and less addictive pain medications.  With this process, CCWV ensures that the only patients using strong narcotics are the ones who absolutely need them, and CCWV imposes strong controls to ensure that the narcotic medications are being used correctly and not being abused or diverted for criminal purposes. These controls include a vigorously enforced narcotics contract and regular pill counts, urine drug screens, and reviews of the patient’s Board of Pharmacy report.

With the addition of this specialty service, CCWV has established a system for treating chronic pain in West Virginia. Pain management is a specialty field, and at CCWV, it is treated as such. CCWV's pain program is led by experienced physicians who are certified and well-trained in handling pain management issues and using pain medicine to treat that pain. This physician oversees all aspects of the program, including the use of pain medications by CCWV’s other physicians.