title: Quality assurance and assessment in pain management.
abstract: Relief from pain is itself a marker of high-quality medical care. Quality assurance in the case of pain management could simply mean successful elimination of pain. Because the means of controlling pain are imperfect, it is essential to consider whether pain interventions actually achieve the primary goal of pain relief and also whether they are safe, cost-effective, and even capable of producing secondary benefits such as early recovery from surgery. Quality assurance and assessment in pain management therefore becomes a complex undertaking that must incorporate into its processes the often-conflicting goals of comfort versus safety versus patients' rights.
authors.affiliation: Pain Medicine and Palliative Care, Penn Pain Medicine, Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care, University of Pennsylvania, Second Floor Tuttleman Building, 1840 South Street, Philadelphia, PA 19146, USA. Anita.Gupta@uphs.upenn.edu
authors.forename: Anita
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gupta
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ashburn
authors.forename: Jane
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ballantyne
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D002908:Chronic Disease; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000150:complications; D059408:Pain Management; D010148:Intractable Pain / Q000628:therapy; D010166:Palliative Care; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D018802:Patient-Centered Care; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000592:standards*; D016896:Treatment Outcome