Help focus your facility on pain management

These are the elements of an institutional commitment to the relief of pain:

• Develop an interdisciplinary work group.

• Analyze the current pain management practices in your care setting.

• Articulate and implement a standard of practice.

• Establish accountability for pain management.

• Provide information about pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic interventions to clinicians to facilitate order writing and interpretation and implementation of orders.

• Promise patients a quick response to their reports of pain.

• Provide education for staff.

• Continually evaluate and work to improve the quality of pain management.

Source: Based on the recommendations of the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research and the American Pain Society’s quality improvement commitments.