Acute Pain Management at Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center
Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center's Acute Pain Management Team is dedicated to easing patients' pain. With recent advances in medical technology, there's no need for patients to suffer intense pain while they are in the hospital. Requirements for pain medication vary from person to person. Our pain management team customizes therapy for each patient's needs. Minimizing pain not only makes patients feel better, it also helps to speed their recovery process.
Reducing Complications
The key to getting discharged from the hospital is to reduce complications. Unfortunately, complications occur when patients are in so much pain they are unable to move, so their lungs get congested, which can lead to pneumonia, or they can get blood clots in their legs. If we lessen their pain, patients are able to heal sooner after surgery.Led by Lourdes Anesthesiologist Randy Kushner, D.O., the pain management group includes a team of anesthesiologists, physicians, nurses, pharmacists, social workers and a psychologist as needed.
Acute Pain Management Services at Lourdes employs the latest in pain therapies, such as:
- Continuous epidural catheters: A relatively low dose of intravenous pain killer delivered by catheter through the back, which keeps patients pain-free but alert after major surgery;
- Pain patches: Applied externally to deliver a constant dose of medication;
- Patient-Controlled Analgesia (PCA): Using a computer-operated PCA pump, patients push a hand-held button and receive an intravenous dose of medication whenever they feel pain. Because the pain management team "punches in" a specified amount of pain medication into the computerized PCA, there is no chance of overdosing. There is, however, a continuous flow of relief for post-surgical patients.
Chronically ill patients also benefit from pain management services. Some patients with chronic pain fell between the cracks before and suffered with pain. But today, we have sophisticated medications and non-pharmacologic methods, such as massage therapy, relaxation techniques and guided imagery, to help the chronically or terminally ill with their pain. The team can call upon the services of Lourdes Holistic Nurse who offers these integrative services to help patients relax.
For more information about the Lourdes Acute Pain Management Program, please call 856-722-8246 and leave a message. You will be contacted within 24 hours.
