Hospital Santa Teresa USP and platform SinDOLOR presented his programme “Hospital without pain”, the correct approach to pain in hospitalized patients.

-pain is a symptom less tolerated by the patients and the only non-quantitative vital constant

-A survey conducted by the La Coruña Centre concludes that the treatment of pain is due more to the discretion of the physician to the need of the patient

-scale EVA allows to evaluate objectively the pain with equally valid criteria for the doctor and the patient

A Coruña, 2011-October the Hospital USP Santa Teresa is the first private hospital in Galicia in commit to optimally control the pain of his patients and has launched the program Hospital without pain, driven by the SinDOLOR platform, a joint initiative of the Grünenthal Foundation and FUINSA, aimed at promoting the improvement of care for the patient with pain. The experience of the USP Santa Teresa hospital will soon move to the rest of the USP hospital network centres.

In the presentation of the Hospital program without pain there have been Ms Marta Taboada, Managing Director of USP Santa Teresa; Dr. Paul Asensio, Medical Director of USP Santa Teresa; Mrs. Carmen Zárate, of Grünenthal Foundation; the DRA. Margarita Izquierdo, Director doctor FUINSA, and Dr. Pedro Rico, Director Healthcare of USP hospitals.

Marta Taboada, Managing Director of USP Santa Teresa explains that, the implementation of the project Hospital without pain in USP Santa Teresa supposes an institutional commitment of the staff of the Centre to improve the quality of care of patients with pain. This is one further demonstration of the will of the Hospital to always innovate service and for the benefit of the patient .

Pain is the most common symptom that patients attend the doctor’s and the worse tolerated. It is estimated that it is present in 53% of consultations in primary care, and however, management is difficult because it’s the only vital sign not quantitative – temperature, pulse, heart rate and breathing rate has a system of measure – and indeed a reference usually not reflected in history of the patient.

The USP Santa Teresa hospital has implemented all the necessary tools for the optimal management of acute pain in their patients admitted and in a next phase will also address the chronic pain of patients who come to consultation. The treatment of pain is still a chance of improvement ”, said Dr. Paul Asensio, Medical Director of USP Santa Teresa.

La Coruña Centre had a unit of the pain. However, it was detected that admitted patients continue to suffer pain frequently and, after a study, they found that the treatment of pain was more due to criteria of health personnel (doctors and nurses) to the real needs of the patient, because of the difficulty in quantifying pain more objective.

The main difference between a unit of pain and pain-free Hospital lies in that the pain unit work anesthesiologists, and specialists in palliative care, while the Hospital without pain program requires that the pain relief is an institutional objective for all professionals working in the Centre, since the own pain unit nursing staff, specialists in rheumatology, geriatric, pharmacy and ER, among others.

To become a Hospital without pain, USP Santa Teresa has launched a clear system of record clear and regular assessment of the acute pain of the hospital patient, within the routine practice of taking the rest of constants with the maximum to avoid that the patient suffers pain.

To this end, are taught to the patient how to convey your pain to health professionals, telling them the location, frequency and intensity, with the complexity that is the fact that is not equally measurable by the doctor and the patient. In this sense the pain is evaluated with the help of the scale EVA, a scale with aspect of rule, divided in equal parts from 0 to 10, which provides the scale of pain clinicians, and the reference mild ”, moderate ” and intense ”, conforms more to the expression of the level of pain by the patient.

Previously, the staff has received training within the framework of the course CHANGE PAIN, which is part of an international campaign aimed at health professionals, supported by EFIC (European Federation of international associations for the study of pain) and implemented in Spain by the platform without pain. From the SinDOLOR platform contribute to this project our experience in the development of activities aimed at improving the approach to pain with awareness-raising, training and protocolización strategies, provided support and materials for the development of these activities ”, has featured Carmen Zárate, Grünenthal Foundation.

Also, a protocol for treatment of postoperative pain, which unified the criteria of treatment, with the aim of improving the patient care, decrease your pain and facilitating the work of medical personnel has been established.

The experience of USP Santa Teresa in this program will serve to implement it in the rest of the USP hospital network facilities, according to announced the aid Director of the group, Dr. Pedro Rico, within the initiatives being taken to improve the quality of care.

On USP hospital

Founded in 1998 and headquartered in Madrid, USP hospital is the first hospital private group in the Spanish market. Currently, USP hospital boasts a network of 12 hospitals, 23 health centres and 4,000 doctors annually serving more than two million patients. In 2010 the company recorded 331.494 clinical stays, 118.931 surgery, 11.202 births and 424.511 er.

About platform SinDOLOR

The SinDOLOR platform is an initiative launched in October 2008 by FUINSA (Foundation for health research) and the Grünenthal Foundation with the aim of improving care to the patient with pain and their families. The SinDOLOR platform aims to raise awareness of health structures and society on the importance of pain for those who suffers from, coordinating actions of training, research and patient care initiatives to improve the current situation.

On the Grünenthal Foundation

Grünenthal Foundation is a private non-profit, with full capacity to act and own resources. With its motto live without pain, better ”, the Foundation defines his dedication to training, dissemination of scientific knowledge, collaboration with scientific societies and supporting research. These activities are mainly developed in the fields of pain and palliative medicine and neurodegenerative diseases.