Mercy Medical Center Opens
All-inclusive Interventional Pain Center
Mercy Medical Center is pleased to announce the opening of the Mercy Interventional Pain Center, located on the hospital’s 4th floor. The new center is the latest addition to Mercy’s all-inclusive Back and Spine Center services.
A ribbon-cutting event is scheduled for Tuesday, July 11, at 3 p.m. The event will include brief comments from administrators and Tork Harman, MD, Medical Director of Pain Management. Staff members will conduct tours of the new facility.
The new center is designed around an interdisciplinary approach to pain that will allow patients to have their care coordinated, and medical needs addressed. It also reflects the hospital’s ongoing commitment to use the latest technology, combined with the expertise of doctors and nurses who are board certified in pain management, to take immediate and appropriate actions to treat acute and chronic pain.
The Interventional Pain Center will provide procedures for patients dealing with back, neck, and spine pain, in addition to pain caused by cancer and other chronic conditions.
The new facility doubles the space that was previously devoted to the Back and Spine Center. It will include 18 new exams rooms, two procedure rooms with state-of-the-art imaging equipment, and additional consultation space.
Within the new Center, patients will also have access to the Spine Evaluation Clinic, wherein a physician will determine the source of a patient’s pain and prescribe an appropriate course of action. Pain management may include an interventional pain procedure, a referral to a surgeon or a behavioral counselor, or medically managing the patient through an innovative wellness coaching program. The wellness coach will guide patients through an individualized course of action, such as physical therapy, nutritional services, stress management, or massage therapy.
According to Tim Charles, Mercy Medical Center president & CEO, “The wellness coach is one of the unique features of our new pain center. The patient’s coach will coordinate a comprehensive wellness program that puts them on the path to achieve their goals. They also help ease the patient’s burden by coordinating all of our services, so they only have to make one stop. This type of patient-centered care truly embodies the Mercy Touch.”
Tork Harman, MD, an anesthesiologist with a subspecialty and board certification in pain management, will oversee the program. Dr. Harman has been at Mercy for 12 years. He said patients will benefit from the interdisciplinary care and convenience offered by the Interventional Pain Center. “Chronic pain can be debilitating for many people,” he said. “It’s exciting that we will be able to offer a wide range of services and therapies for those people. The Center will allow us to enhance our ability to deliver patient-centered care.”
“We’ve seen a tremendous amount of growth since Mercy opened our pain management department ten years ago,” says Tim Charles. When Mercy began offering pain management services in 1996, 1,101 patient procedures were provided that first year. This past year, Mercy’s Back and Spine Center provided 3,911 patient procedures—more than a three-fold increase.
According to the National Institute of Health, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health, more than 50 million Americans experience chronic pain and 45% of the population will seek medical help for pain at some point in their lives. “Our new center is an important step in addressing this problem in our community,” says Tim Charles. “We hope this new place of healing provides a light at the end of the tunnel for people suffering from chronic pain, and also demonstrates that they are not alone.”
Mercy’s pain management services received an impressive 88% overall ranking in a national patient satisfaction study.
Mercy’s new Interventional Pain Center will begin treating patients on Monday, July 17, 2006.
