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Dr. Ike Eriator, University of Mississippi Medical Center

Focusing on effectively easing patients' discomfort and educating healthcare providers about pain control are the primary goals of a new initiative recently implemented by University Hospital's Pain Management Performance Improvement Committee and the Department of Anesthesiology at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

Directed by Dr. Claude Brunson, professor and chair of anesthesiology, and led by Dr. Ike Eriator, the department's pain director, the initiative addresses low patient satisfaction with pain through a plan of outreach and education.

"Because we're a teaching institution, we often see patients who have been other places before," said Eriator, who garnered national attention for the pain management program he developed for the G.V. "Sonny" Montgomery Department of Veteran Affairs Medical Center. "And being a teaching institution, we're on the cutting edge of medicine. So we're able to look at patients' pain a little differently, and we have specialists we can bring together. We've found that using a combination of treatment and specialists goes a long way toward solving problems concerning patients' pain, where a doctor working alone might not have the time or resources to effectively alleviate their discomfort."

The first step of the initiative was bringing Eriator to UMC from the VA Hospital, where the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations cited his work as a "best practice example" for the entire healthcare community. After studying the Medical Center's pain management program, Eriator made several recommendations, including the careful monitoring of patient complaints about acute pain, educational seminars for nurses, regular luncheon meetings with doctors and nurses to discuss pain control and a public awareness campaign to empower patients with information on pain control methods.

"The key to the new program is having a trained pain resource provider in every unit of the Medical Center," said Eriator. "Usually the provider is a nurse. However, other providers also are encouraged to participate. The idea is to train people at the grass roots level, or those who are going to be at the forefront of care, to ensure that patients in different areas have someone who knows about pain and pain control."

Initial survey data from patients showed that some 82 percent of Medical Center patients said they were satisfied with the way nurses treated their pain, a marked improvement from the 78 percent satisfaction survey a year earlier.

"We do surveys on a regular basis to gauge the patients' level of satisfaction," explained Eriator. "In general, patients report high levels of satisfaction with their treatment. While it's a good way to measure what's being done, it's not quite specific."

Improving pain management is vital because patients who suffer from acute pain often have a longer hospital stay, which increases the cost of medical care and chance for infection.

"We always had a good emphasis on pain, but what we had in place wasn't working," said Brunson. "Now, it's working."

Physician education is another focal point of the initiative. Of 138 healthcare providers, 39 percent believe narcotic addiction occurs frequently as a result of legitimate prescriptions for pain. "One of the things we're trying to do through physician education is correct that misconception," said Eriator.

Dr. Wanda J. Keahey, drug information specialist, said the initiative is in line with the American Pain Society's recognition of the congressional mandate designating 2001-2010 "the decade of pain control and research."

"This encourages the awareness and education of both the public and healthcare professionals about pain and its effective management," she said.

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