Reaching for Excellence
Community Vision and Voices for Western New York Health Care
Measuring Performance
Pain Management
What This Indicator Measures
This indicator tracks the percentage of hospital patients in Western New York who reported that their pain was "always" well controlled with hospital staff doing everything they could to help with their pain, during their recent hospital stay.
Why This Measure Matters
Doing everything possible to help patients with pain is an indicator of the level of empathy hospital providers show for the patient's physical discomfort, a key component of caring and compassionate health care. While pain management is often associated with medication, helping patients alleviate their pain might be addressed as simply as providing extra pillows or calming music.
Learn how this indicator informs these WNY Health Care Priorities:
% of Hospital Patients Reporting That Their Pain Was Always Well Managed
Data Sources & Notes
This chart presents summary level results from the Hospital CAHPS survey collected between July 2007 and June 2008, as provided in the Hospital Compare database maintained by the Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services.
This indicator is a composite that draws upon two survey questions: "During this hospital stay, how often was your pain well controlled?" and "During this hospital stay, how often did the hospital staff do everything they could to help you with your pain?" Possible responses to these questions were "always," "usually," "sometimes" and "never."
The Western New York average reflects a discharge-weighted average across all hospitals in the region, while the national and New York State averages are from Hospital Compare database. The average among the top 1% of hospitals in the nation is from "Why Not the Best?", a health care quality improvement tool of the Commonwealth Fund.
