M.D. Our acute pain service provides care primarily for postoperative surgical patients, medical patients with pain problems, and cancer patients on a referral basis. We also employ and recommend adjuvant drugs. We are interested in non-pharmacologic methods of pain control especially for those patients who have difficulty controlling their pain with drugs. There are a few tape recorders and relaxation tapes on hand that are offered to select patients.
Formal rounds take place on every patient each morning.
Each afternoon the house officer and afternoon nurse round on any patients with special pain problems and all those with epidural catheters. A pharmacist is assigned to our service and rounds with us at least once a week. This has been very helpful in smoothing out problems concerning the pharmacy or with making up special solutions. It also provides us with an excellent source of drug information. We have between 35 and 75 patients on the service each day.