Improving Pain Management in Long-Term Care Facilities

Abstract

Improving pain management in long-term care facilities has several unique barriers in comparison to the acute hospital setting. To address these barriers the Medical College of Wisconsin Palliative Care Program began a project in 1996, initially working with 87 long-term care facilities, to improve pain management practices through a series of educational and quality improvement steps. This article will review the overall structure, results, strengths and weaknesses of this approach to improving pain management in this important site of clinical care. This article was excerpted from a thematic issue, "Promoting Better Pain Management in Long-Term Care Facilities," Volume 3, Number 1, 2001 of the online journal Innovations in End-of-Life Care at <www.edc.org/lastacts/>.