Stollery Children’s Hospital receives international certification for pain management standards

An undated photo of a worker at Edmonton's Stollery Children's Hospital. (Dave Mitchell / CTV News Edmonton)

Edmonton’s Stollery Children’s Hospital is now internationally recognized for its excellent pediatric pain care.

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The hospital is one of 20 hospitals around the world certified by ChildKind International, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving pediatric pain management practices.

“What having this ChildKind certification at the Stollery lets us do is show families that we are fully committed and that we are working to change our culture. And I think we have,” said Dr. Samina Ali, the pediatric emergency doctor who led the certification team, in an interview on Tuesday.

A hospital seeking certification is examined in five ways, including how it measures a patient’s pain, communicates with their family, and quality improvement.

Dana Nagel says she and her son have seen the difference in the time between two surgeries he had in 2023 and late 2024.

“It was completely different,” she said, telling CTV News Edmonton of the personal control button he received to administer his own pain medication.

“The nurses and doctors all trusted him to be able to do that on his own, as well as if he needed to top up medication. Never once was he ever denied.… There was never a point where somebody said, ‘Are you sure you need it? Can you wait a little bit longer?’”

Hospitals that receive a CKI certification must renew it every five years.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Dave Mitchell