Measuring patient opinion of pain management

Pain management has been increasingly recognized as an important indicator of quality patient care. In this article, iue describe the development of a measure of patients' perception of pain management. Based upon the America n Pain Society's guidelines, the six-item Patient Opinion of Pain Managemen t (POPM) scale demonstrated promising internal consistency: reliability and validity in a sample of 241 patients from 11 hospitals. The POPM is discus sed in the context of previous research on the assessment of pain managemen t. J Pain Symptom Manage 1999;17:17-26. (C) U.S. Cancer Pain Relief Committ ee, 1999.