Lurie Children’s One Of Six Hospitals Nationwide To Receive Pain Management Certification
November 10, 2017
Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago has been awarded a ChildKind International certification for its comprehensive approach to pain prevention and management in children. Lurie Children’s is one of six hospitals in the US to receive the certification.
“We are committed to leading Chicago to be a Childkind City, a city that is sensitive to children’s pain,” said pediatric pain expert Renee Manworren, PhD, APN, Lurie Children’s Director of Nursing Research and Professional Practice and Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine “This certification is the first recognition of the collaborative efforts of 7 hospitals that are sharing expertise and best practices to improve pain management for all children in the Chicagoland area.”
Lurie Children’s was recognized for its institutional commitment to pain management; use of pain assessment tools; treating pain with medicines and non-drug methods; having an Acute Pain Management Team, multidisciplinary Chronic Pain Program and Palliative Care Program; providing ongoing education to improve children’s pain management; identifying pain as a key quality indicator and partnering with parents on pain education and management.
“Research shows that patients who experience better pain management while in the hospital have shorter recovery periods and fewer hospital return visits,” said Patrick Birmingham, MD, head of the Division of Pain Medicine under the Department of Pediatric Anesthesia at Lurie Children’s and Professor of Anesthesiology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “Our hospital serves as a benchmark for other institutions nationwide for pain management.”
The ChildKind initiative was conceived by the Special Interest Group on Pain in Childhood of the International Association for the Study of Pain to reduce pain in children by formally recognizing health care facilities that have made an institutional commitment to providing pain relief.
Lurie Children’s is ranked as one of the nation’s top children’s hospitals in the U.S.News & World Report. It is the pediatric training ground for Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Last year, the hospital served more than 208,000 children from 50 states and 58 countries.