Jacho.. making our lives miserable

This is BIG! It was televised on Good Morning America today 12/27/00. This is a new standard all must comply with in 2000 or

loose accreditation. You will see Pain scales and new forms soon to meet the standards. Don't forget, a consumer can make a complaint directly to JCAHO, which may produce an audit.

Our hospital has already put together a Pain Management committee with mostly nurses and a couple of the doctors. We have been meeting regarding this situation for about 5 months already. We are going chapter by chapter on the JCAHO pain management standards and have already begun distributing a "Patient's Rights" pamphlet to every patient and have one posted in each inpatient room. It's not just in the EC that you run into 'drug seeking' behavior. Yes, those that just want the drugs are going to learn to work this new system of rating their pain and response just the same as they learned to work the old system of running into the EC and having generalized complaints requiring pain relief. Nurses here are told to be very diligent charting non-verbal reactions in the narative along with patient statements of their level of pain that go on the new pain scale reports. There is also inservicing happening regarding the subjective-ness of pain and that we must take at face value the patient's complaint of pain, even when our gut may be saying they like the meds a lot. I wish there were more doctors on our committee because, having worked with chronic pain and cancer pain patients, it seems that the docs are the ones who are tentative to order stronger meds for those who need it. I believe that those patients where the voice of this new standard arose from, not from the patients seen in EC.