nationwide. "They
believed they needed
to prescribe
painkillers, or risk
being reported to their
medical board. But
what I teach people is
that this is not the
only way. More and
more, physicians are
open to embracing
alternatives."
Pain medicine continues to gain in popularity, especially among
patients who want to remain active, mobile and pain-free as they age.
OR managers have recognized that adding pain procedures to their
surgical services can be quite profitable, supplying a high-volume,
low-cost source of revenue that offers what other specialties can't:
repeat business. Most surgeries are single events at your facility,
whereas most pain management patients require ongoing visits to
your facility.
As a service line, pain management is a natural extension to special-
ties that frequently deal in chronic pain: the cervical and lower back
pain of orthopedics and neurosurgery, the foot and leg pain of podia-
try, even the pelvic and prosthetic pain of urology and gynecology.
Surgeons practicing these specialties at your facility have a captive
audience for pain management referrals.
The overhead is low, as the amount of equipment required is mini-
mal. Capital equipment is limited to a C-arm or other intraoperative
imaging system and a fluoroscopy table. In terms of OR personnel,
you'll need someone to run the C-arm and a nurse to assist the sur-
1 0 2 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • J U N E 2 0 1 7
• FACET JOINT Along with the numbing medication, a facet joint injection also
includes injecting a time-release steroid (cortisone) into the facet joint to reduce
inflammation, which can sometimes provide longer-term pain relief.
