Transforming pain management with PainChek^® at Saint Louis Aged Care

• • At St Louis, PainChek® Universal has become the new standard for pain assessment – for both those who can and cannot verbalise their pain.
  • Operationally simple and easy-to-use, saving considerable time and reducing administration.
  • Allows staff to spend more time caring for residents.
  • The combination of both PainChek® and NRS in one digital device enables staff to manage pain for all residents.
  • The digital NRS on the PainChek® app is quick and easy and has now replaced other paper-based pain assessments
  • PainChek® Analytics provides both insightful data and a discipline for monitoring and following-up assessments.

Saint Louis is one of South Australia’s most established aged care homes, caring for the elderly for over 70 years. Saint Louis offers an inclusive care system involving both residents and their families, supporting their promise of ‘Let our family take care of yours’. Saint Louis prides itself on achieving an accreditation of being an ‘extra service’ nursing home, offering a quality service for its residents.

On behalf of his team of registered nurses, Ken Gao explains how the addition of PainChek® Universal has broadened the scope and capability of managing pain at St Louis.

“We were early adopters of PainChek® back in February 2018 and to date have undertaken nearly 9000 assessments. With NRS now included in the same PainChek® app, our pain assessments have more than doubled. This is a fantastic result and has become the new standard for pain assessment.”

“Combining both PainChek® and the NRS assessment scales into one single pain assessment tool has made life so much easier for staff. It has significantly reduced paper-based assessments and administration, allowing more time for staff to care for residents.” says Ken.

Increasing the number of assessments has also increased the data available on each resident. Housed within PainChek® Analytics – a full reporting capability providing data on all assessments, treatment and follow ups – the access to and availability of data now ensures treatment is monitored and pain levels are reduced.

Ken explains further:
“The reporting dashboard from PainChek® Analytics provides significant data that allows us to track both assessments and follow-up action. For us, this has been applied as a daily discipline to ensure all assessments are followed up and any remedial treatments have reduced pain levels for the residents.”