1. Increasing Patient Participation in Comfort & Pain Control
Wendy Rockey, RN, CV Director. Scott Whittal, RN, Clinical Manager
Michele King, RN, Shift Coordinator. 3NS Patient Satisfaction Improvement Team
3NS South – Interventional Telemetry Unit Exempla Saint Joseph Hospital Denver, Colorado
Project Description
Our always event - The patient
will ALWAYS be offered options for
pain & comfort, and the patient &
caregiver will ALWAYS decide the
Always Event Challenge comfort plan together.
-Picker Institute-
Idea/Inspiration –
• Dr. Tom James article When treating patient’s pain, it is too
often a routine offering of pain meds,
June 2010
followed by a repeat of more of the
same.
We are missing the discussion that
includes the patient, other options,
what works for them at home, what
can we combine with pain meds to
help, etc.
• “Always Event” = At the same time, neither patients
“Those aspects of the patient and Family nor caregivers can be expected to
experience that should always occur think of, or remember, all the options
that are available.
when patients interact with Healthcare
We needed a tool to help.
professionals & the delivery system”.
Tool – A menu to be used with
• Picker Institute awarded 21 grants for each pain assessment. Offering 6
always event ideas. ESJH/3NS/CV ‘courses’…
received one of these grants in the
amount of $9,920. Comfort items
Medication options Outcomes
Comfort actions • Have spread menu to 3 tele units. Continue to work on consistent use of the tool.
Personal Care items • Initial data shows increasing patient-satisfaction score for pain. Goal of >82 yet to be
attained.
Relaxation options • Tele staff report that the tool is helping think of all the options & facilitate the conversation
Keep boredom at bay • Patient feedback has been positive. One patient said “it’s like a spa”.
• Next Steps: House-wide spread
•