The pain standards are available from www.jcaho.org/standard/pm_hap.html. The standards will be scored in 2001. Under the new standards, health care providers are expected to be knowledgeable about pain assessment and management, and facilities are expected to develop policies and procedures supporting the appropriate assessment of pain and the use of analgesics and other pain control interventions. Some key concepts include:
In terms of pain measurement, the standards include the following statement. "An organization selects pain intensity measures to ensure consistency across departments, for example, the 0-10 scale, the Wong-Baker FACES pain rating scale (smile-frown), and the verbal descriptor scale. Adult patients are encouraged to use the 0-10 scale. If they cannot understand or are unwilling to use it, the smile-frown or the verbal scale is used."
Excellent resources for help in meeting the pain standards are:
Pain Assessment and Management: An Organizational
Approach and an interactive CD-ROM for clinical staff development,
Pain Management, are available from the Joint Commission.
Building an Institutional Commitment to Pain Management: The Mayday Resource Manual for Improvement.. An excellent compilation of resource material to promote institutional support of pain management; all of the sample resource tools are available on a disc. Available from American Alliance of Cancer Pain Initiatives, 1300 University Avenue, Madison, WI 53706; 608-265-4013, Fax 608-265-4014; Email: aacpi@aacpi.org; www.aacpi.org.
McCaffery M and Pasero C: Pain: Clinical Manual, 2nd edition, St. Louis, Mosby, 1999.
Acello B: Meeting JCAHO standards for pain control, Nursing 2000 30(3):52-54, 2000.
Pasero C, Gordon DB, and McCaffery M: JCAHO on assessing and managing pain, Am J Nurs 99(7):22, 1999.
March 15, 2002