Hospital and chronic care facilities in the United States have active "quality assurance committees" that monitor selected outcomes of care, working toward steady improvement in results. In order to harness these existing mechanisms to improve pain treatment, the American Pain Society has drafted a set of standards that embody five key elements for favorably influencing behaviors of patients and clinicians: 1) ensuring that a report of unrelieved pain raises a "red flag" that clinicians cannot ignore; 2) putting information about analgesics conveniently at hand where orders are written; 3) promising patients responsive analgesic care and urging them to communicate pain; 4) providing policies and safeguards for the use of modern analgesic technologies; and 5) monitoring the facility's success in implementing these measures.