Office Policies and General Information
Welcome to Southern Illinois Pain Management. You have come to a place where someone understands what life is like for those who suffer from acute and chronic pain. Pain can disrupt you life, keep you from work and prevent you from enjoying your after-work activities. The staff will look at the impact pain is having on your life and upon your activities of daily living. After pinpointing the cause, we will determine an appropriate treatment plan specific to you and your pain. Our goal is to return you to a level of activity by reducing or eliminating your pain and having you enjoy life again.
We feel that it is important to treat the whole person—not just the pain. Therefore, we use a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary, team approach to managing your pain. We provide the community with access to coordinated care in the assessment, treatment and rehabilitation of patients in pain.
PAIN MANAGEMENT
Southern Illinois Pain Management staff are specially trained and certified
in pain medicine. We utilize precise diagnostic techniques to determine
the cause of pain and then choose the appropriate plan to treat the
pain. Our interventions include epidural blocks, steroid and anesthetic
injections, radiofrequency thermocoagulation techniques and lysis of
neuroblastic injections. All procedures are performed under the guidance
of X-ray to ensure accuracy of blocks. Peripheral nerve blocks may
be performed in the office.
TEAM APPROACH
In order for you to reach maximum benefit from this program, you must
agree to participate in all aspects of your care. If you do not fulfill
all the requirements, we will not be able to help in your treatment.
We are a consulting group; therefore, we cannot manage all your medical
problems. After we help you with the pain, we will refer you back to
your family doctor or the physician who referred you to us. You must
have a primary care physician or referring physician.
PHYSICAL THERAPY AND OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY
When pain is a part of everyday life, the result can be reduced movement,
absence from work and decreased participation in the activities you
enjoy. Physical and occupational therapists evaluate your level of
strength and ability to function and create a therapy program based
on improving these areas. Their knowledge of exercise physiology and
muscle strengthening techniques are combined with the latest therapeutic
equipment to create a program especially designed for you. The physical
therapy can be provided to you at a location close to your home.
PAIN MANAGEMENT /BEHAVIORAL MANAGEMENT
We may ask you to undergo psychological or psychiatric evaluation and/or
counseling sessions because of your chronic pain. Chronic pain affects
not only the body, but also the mind. It is beneficial to have someone
to whom you can talk about the pain and its impact on your life. The
therapist provides information to our physicians on the psychophysiological
effects of the chronic pain. We provide psychophysiological therapy,
family therapy, group and individual psychotherapy to assist in controlling
and coping with the pain.
PAIN MEDICATIONS
Pain medications are an important part of your care. Therefore, we want
to make sure you are on the appropriate medications for your specific
pain. When appropriate, patients will sign a narcotic contract with
Southern Illinois Pain Management. The contract is to assure that we
are the only physician prescribing your pain medications. This will
provide greater relief from the pain and also help to prevent possible
serious drug interactions. If you break this contract, you will no
longer be prescribed narcotics from Southern Illinois Pain Management.
Southern Illinois Pain Management does not view running out of medication to be an emergency. You are responsible for taking your medication in the manner in which it was prescribed. If you run out of medication before your next appointment, you may not be issued more medication, unless at the discretion of the physician or physician assistant. No refills or medication changes will be given after hours, on weekends or holidays. Narcotics will not be refilled unless you are seen in the office monthly and comply with the pain management therapy program. Please remember that it is your responsibility to monitor you medication usage and to plan for your follow-up visit if you need a refill.
PHONE CALLS
Please know that phone calls are important to us! But, we are constantly
busy with operating and seeing patients and may not be ably to take
your phone call right away.
MESSAGES WILL BE TAKEN BY THE FRONT OFFICE STAFF AND GIVEN TO THE MEDICAL STAFF PERSONNEL. MESSAGES WILL BE RETURNED AFTER 5:00P.M. Please do not tie up the phone lines with repeat calls. The messages will be returned.
Please do not fax questions about your care to our office. There is no guarantee that these notes will reach the proper person.
OFFICE HOURS
The office is open Monday – Friday 9:00A.M. to 5:00P.M.
We are closed New Years Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day, 4th of July, Thanksgiving and the day after Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The physicians will only be paged after hours if there is an emergency.
NOTICE OF APPOINTMENT CANCELLATIONS
We try to arrange our appointment schedule so there is little time spent
waiting. There are others who could be seen during your scheduled time,
so we ask you to call 24 hours in advance of your appointed time to
cancel your appointment. Appointments that are not cancelled will be
considered “NO SHOW.” You will then be charged a $25.00
fee, which is not covered by any insurance or worker’s compensation.
THIS FEE MUST BE PAID BEFORE ANOTHER APPOINTMENT WILL BE SCHEDULED.
DROP-INS
Southern Illinois Pain Management is not an acute care facility. If you
need to see the doctor for any reason, you MUST have a scheduled appointment.
CHILDCARE
Every patient we see is suffering from pain. Therefore, we ask that you
consider the feelings of others by not bringing children to your appointments.
We do not provide childcare.
IN CASE OF EMERGENCY
Please call Heartland Regional at 618-998-7000 and they will page a Physician.