Leveraging Interactive Patient Care Technology to Improve Pain Management Engagement

Most children experience pain in hospitals; and their parents report dissatisfaction with how well pain was managed. Engaging patients and families in the development and evaluation of pain treatment plans may improve perceptions of pain management and hospital experiences.

The aim of this performance improvement project was to engage patients and families to address hospitalized pediatric patients' pain using interactive patient care technology. The goal was to stimulate conversations about pain management expectations and perceptions of treatment plan effectiveness among patients, parents, and health care teams.

Plan-Do-Study-Act was used to design, develop, test, and pilot new workflows to integrate the interactive patient care technology system with the automated medication dispensing system and document actions from both systems into the electronic health record.

The pediatric surgical unit and hematology/oncology unit of a free-standing, university-affiliated, urban children's hospital were selected to pilot this performance improvement project because of the high prevalence of pain from surgeries and hematologic and oncologic diseases, treatments, and invasive procedures.

Documentation of pain assessments, nonpharmacologic interventions, and evaluation of treatment effectiveness increased. The proportion of positive family satisfaction responses for pain management significantly increased from fiscal year 2014 to fiscal year 2016 (p = .006).

By leveraging interactive patient care technologies, patients and families were engaged to take an active role in pain treatment plans and evaluation of treatment outcomes. Improved active communication and partnership with patients and families can effectively change organizational culture to be more sensitive to patients' pain and patients' and families' hospital experiences.