Is an institution-wide programme able to reduce the in-patients' experiences of pain in a high specialization hospital?

The study examines the implication of an institution-wide programme on pain management in reducing the patients' perception of the pain carried out in a university hospital by comparing the results of two surveys conducted in 2002 (prior to the programme) and in 2003 (during the course of the programme). The study was conducted in November 2003 and it consisted in a priority survey on the patients' pain perception using a questionnaire which was distributed to all the patients admitted in a highly specialised hospital and interviewed by trained interviewers. Later on the data were compared to the results obtained with a similar survey carried out in November 2002 in the same hospital. In 2002 the percentage of patients reporting pain at the moment of the interview was 43.4% (82/145), in the year 2003 it was 35.3% (49/139) [OR = 2.4, CI (95%) = 1.4-4.0, p < 0.001]. With regards to the pain reported in the previous 24 hrs, there was a reduction in the percentage of patients experiencing pain from 69.0% in 2002 (100/145) to 42.4% in 2003 (59/139) [OR = 3.0, CI (95%) = 1.8-5.0, p < 0.001]. Our hospital wide program succeeded in reducing pain in patients, improving professional quality and creating customer satisfaction in a hospital.