Measuring patient opinion of pain management.

Pain management has been increasingly recognized as an important indicator of quality patient care. In this article, we describe the development of a measure of patients' perception of pain management. Based upon the American Pain Society's guidelines, the six-item Patient Opinion of Pain Management (POPM) scale demonstrated promising internal consistency, reliability, and validity in a sample of 241 patients from 11 hospitals. The POPM is discussed in the context of previous research on the assessment of pain management.