Migraine and Headache Pain - Do Hospitals Have To Treat It?

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Recognize patients' rights to pain control
Screen for pain
Perform a complete assessment when pain is present
Record the assessment in a way that facilitates regular reassessment and follow-up
Set a standard for monitoring and intervention
Educate providers and assure staff competency
Establish policies that support appropriate prescription or ordering of pain medicines
Educate patients and families
Include patient needs for symptom control in discharge planning
Collect data to monitor the effectiveness and appropriateness of pain management

Now, when a patient's vital signs are checked - temperature, blood pressure, etc. - their level of pain will be assessed also. Adults will be asked, if they are in pain, to rate it on a scale of one to ten. Young children will be asked to demonstrate their pain level by drawing a picture. Proper pain relief is required to begin as soon as possible or facilities risk losing accreditation.

Dr. Russell Portenoy, pain medicine chairman at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York commented,

"It's a watershed event. No one has ever promised patients no pain. But what JCAHO wants to do is promise people their pain will be assessed and managed in a state-of-the-art way."

These standards have been in effect since January of 2001, but reading many of our forum posts, SharePosts, and my email reveals that not all JCAHO accredited facilities are complying with them. If you find yourself in one of those facilities, seeking relief from a Migraine attack, severe headache, or other pain, if you are not asked to assess your pain, volunteer the information. Tell the person checking your vital signs or the person you're seeing for treatment how much pain you're in on a scale of one to ten.

If you've been to a hospital and feel they've violated these JCAHO standards, you can file a report online. Click HERE to go to their reporting form.

To close, I'm going to leave you with some very wise words from health care professionals:

"This is not going to happen overnight. Patients are going to have to demand better care. Unrelieved pain has negative effects. Just like they need an antibiotic to treat infection, they need analgesics to treat their pain." Christine Miaskowski, nursing chair at the University of California, San Francisco, and American Pain Society president-elect.
"People think it's like an 11th commandment: 'Thou had surgery, thou should have pain.' ... or that if you have cancer, you must have pain. Pain can be relieved." June Dahl, University of Wisconsin pain specialist.