It hurts, but less

The pain management service at the Hillel Yaffe Medical Center has recently undergone a transformation for the benefit of the hospital patients and patients in its various clinics. The service has expanded the services provided in the fields of acute pain and chronic pain. It has added consultation services for treatment after surgeries, treatment of chronic pain in patients in various departments and the establishment of a pain clinic and placement of pain treatment first responders in every department. Similarly, the service collaborates with the “Hillel Yaffe” complementary medicine clinic, with the Anesthesiology department and more. The service is headed by Dr. Yaron River, the Director of the Neurology Department at the Medical Center.

“After surgery, during hospitalization in a hospital department, in a clinic etc. – the issue of pain treatment, and especially with pain defined as chronic (pain that continues for more than half a year), is an issue that requires special and multifaceted attention. It incorporates knowledge from the field of internal medicine, neurology and the field of anesthesiology, and personal attention for each person suffering from pain in different situations,” explains Dr. Yaron River. “Today, the awareness towards the issue of chronic pain has risen, and it is clear that it isn’t possible to address pain as one of those things that will just ‘go away after taking a pill,’ but rather it is a more complicated issue, that requires the involvement of various individuals in the field of conventional and alternative medicine.”

As a part of its new framework (and in part – in the old one) the new pain management center works with several separate bodies working jointly under it, with the goal of providing that which is necessary in this field in the hospital, according to the needs of the system: 

• A service coordinating nurse– who will serve as a central mediator for coordination between the various bodies in the hospital in this field, in accordance with the requirements of the various departments, including staff instruction, information updates and more.   
• A pain clinic – a clinic that has existed for several years. The clinic operates three times a week (on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays) and includes an Anesthesiologist, working with the Neurology Institute. 
• Head and Neck Pain Clinic – Headed by Dr. Yaron River.  
• Acute pain – Directed by Dr. Anatoli Stav, an Anesthesiologist and the Director of the Recovery Unit. Providing solutions, mostly medicinal, related to acute pain for patients in the hospital. 
• Providing combined consultation – neurology, anesthesiology and internal medicine for patients in various departments – after surgeries, or for the terminally ill.  
• Complementary Medicine Clinic – A clinic that has been operating in the hospital for many years, whose capabilities will be incorporated in the future, through two channels: patients will be able to enjoy the advantages of conventional and alternative medicine and the combination of the two, that is currently able to significantly aid those suffering from chronic pain. 
• A pain forum where discussions can be held on the topic of patients’ problematic pain symptoms, present data from scientific literature, and information can be shared with various professionals in the institution who have any relation to pain treatment or any interest in the subject.  

“Most of the above services already existed in the hospital,” says Dr. River, “the concentration of the needs of the various departments by one responsible nurse, and the fact that the medical authority of the Neurology Department is in place and available to provide comprehensive service for pain treatment, is the main change. This allows the staff to pass on questions on the subject of pain and receive answers from the most appropriate authority, while properly and optimally managing the issue, with the goal of alleviating the patients’ pain – in clinics or in the hospital departments.”

The goals of the service are: providing solutions to hospitalized patients and patients who arrive in ambulances, and also to enable the growth of organized knowledge among the professional staff and to enable cooperation between all the relevant bodies. 

How to reach the pain service center in the hospital? 

For those hospitalized in the hospital, consultation is given as part of the recovery process based on the decision of the attending staff and through the pain service coordinating nurse. Requesting pain service from outside the hospital can be achieved by directly contacting the Neurology Clinic at the following phone number: 04-6304262.  

Arriving at the Pain Clinic requires a referral from a general family doctor and a referral form from the patient’s HMO (Health Maintenance Organization).