Re: Pain on QIs

[RRS2000]

I believe that "0" pain is very difficult for most facilities to achieve.  However, the fact that many of your residents are subacute on the TCU is not a rationale for a relatively high pain score.  The goal of pain management for patients with fairly constant pain is to achieve a consistent level of comfort while maintaining as much function as possible.  For post-op patients as well as for chronic pain patients, pain management care plans that rely on PRN pain meds will not achieve that goal and will not result in optimal Quality Measures scores.

I recommend checking out the pain management resources on the QIO website, www.medqic.org and the pain management protocol on the website of the American Medical Directors Association, www.amda.com.  These materials are consistent with the current standard of clinical practice and will result in far better pain management for most patients.  They will also facilitate setting up a Quality Improvement project to improve pain.


Rena

Rena R. Shephard, MHA, RN, FACDONA, RAC-C
Chair, American Association of Nurse Assessment Coordinators
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

-----Original Message-----
>From:   Holbeny, Marylynn [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Sent:   Monday, March 08, 2004 9:24 AM
>To:   [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Subject:  
>
>I have been doing some comparisons in the Medicare Nursing Home web site on pain management.  Out nursing home scores 20% for Residents with pain.  I noticed some Nursing homes have 0%.  How do they get this score and how can I get our Nursing Home to get there.  Do these comparisons come from the information on the MDS from the pain section?  In our facility we would like to decrease our pain score for a quaility improvement project.  We get so many acute patients here on the TCU that it is going to be hard to get the pain score down?  I would appreciate any input.   Mary lynn
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