APPLICATION OF THE AMERICAN PAIN SOCIETY QUALITY ASSURANCE STANDARDS

The American Pain Society's (APS) patient outcome questionnaire was us ed to examine patient satisfaction with pain management in a quality a ssurance study of 217 adults and 31 children in a large university hos pital. On a scale of 1-6, mean (S.D.) patient satisfaction with pain m anagement provided by nurses was 5.37 (1.02) and by physicians was 5.1 0 (1.02). Many patients (84% of adults and 90% of children) reported t hat early in their hospital stay a nurse or physician had communicated the fact that treatment of pain is considered very important. The mea n (S.D.) pain severity score (worst pain in the last 24 h) for adults was 6.62 (2.79) on a 0-10 scale and for children was 4.33 (0.85) on a 0-5 Faces scale. Analyses revealed little relationship between pain se verity and satisfaction; even persons with high levels of pain were ve ry satisfied with the pain management they received from nurses and ph ysicians. Satisfaction was, however, related to whether nurses and phy sicians had communicated to the patient that pain management has a hig h priority. It appears that patients are satisfied if clinicians say t hey want to provide pain management regardless of whether they actuall y do. The data raise questions about the interpretation of patient sat isfaction as an outcome variable in studies of the quality of pain man agement.