Pain management: improving documentation of assessment and intensity.

As a result of standards published by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, there is new emphasis in the area of pain management. This pilot study was conducted to assess the visibility of pain management through documentation; the effect of implementing new tools (forms) was measured to determine whether they improve documentation of pain management assessment and intensity. A retrospective chart review was conducted to determine presence of this documentation. This study found that it is possible to improve the quality of information related to pain assessment through the development of explicit documentation tools.