How do you decide whether to include a basal rate when initiating a PCA?  

This is a difficult question for which there is no good data to guide one's practice. The best book on this and other opiate questions is Mary Lynn McPherson's "Demystifying Opiate Conversion Calculations". I am relatively conservative on using continuous infusions (also called basal rates). My rea...

Another crucial consideration, in addition to the morphine milligram equivalents (MME) or morphine equivalent dose (MED), is the patient's location and life expectancy. For home hospice patients with a short life expectancy who require high-dose opioids, I often convert their current MME to methado...