title: Pain assessment and management in different wards of a tertiary care hospital.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the pain management by medical team, emergency room (ER) team and Acute Pain team in a tertiary care hospital.
  
  
  METHODS
  The cross-sectional study was done in Medical Ward, Surgical Ward and Emergency Room of Aga Khan University, Karachi, in March-April 2010. The assigned research medical officer visited the three locations every day and selected patients by way of convenient sampling. The study comprised 75 patients; 25 each in three groups. Information was collected on patient's demographics, general characteristics, type of drugs and modalities used. Specific queries about pain were sorted out like adequacy of pain assessment done by primary physician, pain intensity, any intervention done and pain relief post-intervention. SPSS version 17, analysis of variance and Chi square test were used for statistical purpose.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean current pain score on the visual analogue score (VAS) was lowest in the Surgical Ward which was being managed by the Acute Pain Management Service (APMS) team followed by the Medical Ward and then Emergency Rooms. The difference was found to be statistically significant. The mean of worst pain score was also the lowest in the Surgical Ward. There was significant difference between wards in terms of the use of pain medications. Proper documentation for pain was done for all patients in the Surgical Ward, followed by the Emergency Room and then the Medical Ward.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Better pain assessment, re-assessment, documentation and patient satisfaction were observed in the Surgical Ward compared to the other two locations of the study.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anaesthesia, Royal Bournemouth Hospital, United Kingdom. hudaanwar90@yahoo.com
authors.lastname: Anwar-ul-Huda
authors.forename: Mohammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hamid
authors.forename: Mohammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Baqir
authors.forename: Aysha
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Almas
authors.forename: Saboor
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ahmed
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D005260:Female; D006748:Hospital Departments; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D059408:Pain Management; D010147:Pain Measurement; D010154:Pakistan; D010348:Patient Care Team / Q000458:organization & administration*; D063128:Tertiary Health Care; D016896:Treatment Outcome