For most patients, part of the recovery process from illness or injury involves some degree of discomfort or pain. The Lourdes Health System believes all patients have the right to a quick response to reports of pain and to have that pain managed effectively.
Lourdes strives to provide pain management that respects your sense of:
- Dignity;
- Ability to maintain your independence;
- Positive self-regard;
- Involvement in your care.
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.
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.
At Lourdes Medical Center of Burlington County
The Pain Management Program at Lourdes Medical Center of Burlington County uses a variety of options for patients in acute pain, including:
- Nerve blocks;
- Femoral nerve blocks;
- Regional nerve blocks;
- Epidural morphine;
- Nerve stimulators.
Lourdes Medical Center of Burlington County was also one of the first centers in the region to test a new, long-acting treatment, DepoDur®. This treatment for the epidural management of postoperative pain provides up to 48 hours of relief in one dose. The benefit is that previously this type of pain control could only be delivered by continuous infusion. This allows patients greater mobility.
Led by the Lourdes Medical Center of Burlington County Anesthesia Team, the program emphasizes getting patients out of bed as early as possible after surgery. This approach is in everyone’s best interest, especially the patient’s. The Team estimates that up to 97 percent of patients are postoperatively pain free utilizing the options available through their program. In addition, the Team works closely with referring internal and family medicine physicians on pre-operative selection and management of patients’ medical problems post-surgery.
What to Expect
Your caregivers at Lourdes are concerned about your pain. Indeed, the control of a patient’s pain is a very important part of the overall treatment plan. The treatment of pain is a cooperative effort between the patient and the nurses and physicians at Lourdes. All patients should expect:
- Information about pain and pain relief measures;
- A concerned staff dedicated to effective pain assessment and management;
- Health care providers who respond quickly to reports of pain and clearly answer questions about treatment options;
- Attention to personal, spiritual or cultural beliefs regarding pain and respect over decisions to refuse a treatment choice.
