Effective July 1, 2019, new and revised pain assessment and management standards will be applicable to Joint Commission-accredited behavioral health care, home care and nursing care center programs.

The program-specific standards follow new and revised pain assessment and management requirements for hospitals, ambulatory health care organizations, critical access hospitals and office-based surgery practices that The Joint Commission introduced earlier this year.

To help health care organizations better understand and comply with the updated standards, The Joint Commission has released three new R3 Reportsto provide in-depth rationale, references and evidence that guided the development of the new and revised requirements:

• R3 Report, Issue 20: Pain assessment and management standards for behavioral health care
• R3 Report, Issue 21: Pain assessment and management standards for nursing care centers
• R3 Report, Issue 22: Pain assessment and management standards for home health services

The updated standards were developed based on public field review and expert guidance from a technical advisory panel, program-specific expert panels and program-specific standards review panels. They are designed to provide contemporary guidance for pain assessment and management, as well as to strengthen organizations’ practices for pain assessment, treatment, education and monitoring.

The prepublication versions of the standards are available on the Prepublication Standards section of The Joint Commission website until June 30, 2019.