Summerset is a leading retirement and aged care provider in New Zealand. With 36 villages across New Zealand and one in Australia, Summerset is home to more than 7,500 residents. Summerset strives to improve residents’ quality of life with pain management at the centre of its care.
Summerset comments:
“Unmanaged pain is a common problem in aged care, with up to 80% of residents experiencing pain at some point in time, while at least 50% of those living with dementia experienced pain on a regular basis. Within Summerset’s care centres, we have a number of residents who are unable to verbalise their pain or discomfort, particularly those who are living with dementia or nearing end of life. This can lead to behaviour disturbances such as aggression, apathy, sleep disturbances, and psychosis.” Traditionally, medications were used to manage these behaviours without addressing underlying pain, which led Summerset to PainChek®.”
Following a successful pilot period, PainChek® was rolled out to all Summerset’s care centres. Summerset said,
“Thanks to its ease of use, the number of recorded pain assessments skyrocketed in the first month. We also began using PainChek®’s numerical rating system for all residents in the care centre. Since the rollout, we’ve noticed positive outcomes such as increased awareness of pain-related behaviour changes, increased analgesia use and less manual data entry. Thanks to PainChek®’s easy integration with our resident management system, VCare, Summerset nurses now feel more empowered to accurately assess and manage pain at the residence bedside.”
Summerset’s implementation of PainChek® demonstrates its commitment to delivering best-practice care and improving the lives of our residents.
Video supplied by Summerset, 2023
Summerset now joins more than 1,000 facilities around the world that have implemented PainChek® to enable best-practice pain assessment and management.
For more information on Summerset, visit: www.summerset.co.nz
