The score determines what steps the hospital must take to help. Better, it's not just hospitals that must take the new steps but nursing homes and outpatient clinics accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. The commission adopted the standards over a year ago, but gave facilities until January to comply. No one has ever promised patients no pain. Many centers still are scrambling to comply.
Unrelieved pain has negative effects.
Just like they need an antibiotic to treat infection, they need analgesics to treat their pain. So being a stoic isn't good. Pain can be relieved. One in four elderly cancer patients in nursing homes receives no treatment at all for daily pain. Last year, Oregon's medical board disciplined a doctor for treating a dying cancer patient's pain with mere Tylenol.