Inadequate pain care in health care facilities is still a major concern. Due to structural and organizational shortcomings the potential of modern analgesia is far from being exhausted. The project "Action Alliance Pain-free City Münster" is designed to analyze the multiprofessional pain management in health care facilities in the model City of Münster in an epidemiologic study and aims to optimize pain management in accordance with nursing standards and medical guidelines. Hospitals, nursing homes, outpatient nursing services, hospices and pain care centers will be examined. After an analysis of the current state on the basis of a pre-test, the necessary optimization measures will be developed and implemented. Subsequently, the pain management will be reevaluated in a post-test. In partly still unexplored health care areas of Germany, epidemiologic data will be generated, barriers to the implementation of standards and guidelines revealed and measures of improvements developed and tested. In addition, interface problems between the evaluated sectors will be identified. In this article the objective and the methods of the project are described.