Acute Pain Management Measurement Toolkit - implementation project

Following the development of the Acute Pain Management Measurement Toolkit (APMMT) the VQC agreed to undertake an implementation project in a number of Victorian health services to assist in changing practices in the management of acute pain.

An expression of interest process was undertaken in May 2007 and 20 public and 5 private health services were selected to participate in the project. Each site aimed to

• review and revise local documentation relating to acute pain management
• train clinicians in pain assessment and the use of validated pain rating scores
• establish reporting and monitoring protocols to support long term measurement of acute pain management.

A pre and post implementation data collection was undertaken to determine the effectiveness of the toolkit and to evaluate:

• staff knowledge and practice of acute pain management
• documentation levels at the patient, ward and organisational levels.

Final Report

The major findings of the project concluded that implementing the Toolkit led to:

• considerable increases in staff awareness of the Toolkit and the range of pain assessment tools available
• the inclusion of pain, sedation and functional activity scores in local observation charts
• an increase in the number of organisations with specific acute pain management
• policies and ward-level protocols utilising the elements of the Toolkit
• improvement in the availability of pain management support resources.

Improving Acute Pain management: A report on the Victorian Quality Council's Acute Pain Management measurement Toolkit Implementation Project (779kb, pdf)

Implementing the Toolkit

Sites participating in the project developed a range of policies, revised observation charts and promotional material to support local implementation of the APMMT. Examples of these resources are now available for download.

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