La Comisión «Hospital sin Dolor» en la estructura de gestión de la calidad de un hospital universitario

Inadequately managed pain is still common in hospitals. The existence of pain units and new therapies and drugs can be effective for the individual patient but do not necessarily improve the prevalence of pain in the majority of hospitalised patients. Clinical committees are an important component of the structure for quality management in hospitals, and they can set clinical and organisational priorities. The project “Hospital sin Dolor” (Hospital without Pain) has been developed by a clinical committee aimed at increasing the awareness of all professionals on the importance of pain and its management in all types of patients. Among the activities developed, five thousand pain scales have been distributed throughout the hospital, pain is now formally registered as a fifth vital sign, a number of educational activities have been organised, and informative leaflets have been designed and distributed. Pain Committees can be a useful quality tool to facilitate the awareness and the collaboration of all professionals towards the institutional goal of pain relief. This experience can be implemented in other clinical centres.