Quality Improvement Project: Replacing the Numeric Rating Scale with a Clinically Aligned Pain Assessment (CAPA) Tool

Area of Science:

• Pain Management
• Healthcare Quality Improvement
• Patient Experience

Background:

• Traditional numeric pain scales may oversimplify patient pain experiences.
• Effective pain assessment requires considering factors beyond intensity.
• A tertiary Midwest hospital sought to enhance its pain assessment protocol.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the implementation of the Comprehensive Assessment of Pain Assessment (CAPA) tool.
• To evaluate the impact of CAPA adoption on patient satisfaction scores.
• To determine if CAPA meets regulatory pain assessment requirements.

Main Methods:

• Adoption of the CAPA tool to replace a numeric pain scale for self-reporting adult patients.
• Qualitative and quantitative analysis of patient satisfaction data pre- and post-implementation.
• Assessment of the tool's alignment with regulatory standards for pain assessment.

Main Results:

• Implementation was a transformative process for the healthcare setting.
• Modest increases in patient satisfaction scores related to pain management were observed.
• Patient reports of "staff did everything to manage pain" showed the most significant and sustained gains (over 2 years).

Conclusions:

• The CAPA tool offers a more comprehensive approach to pain assessment.
• Adoption of CAPA positively influenced patient satisfaction with pain management.
• The CAPA tool fulfills regulatory requirements for pain assessment.