New Inpatient Pain Management Consultation Service Introduced at Highland

Highland Hospital is now offering inpatient pain management consultations. Dr. Chin-Lin Ching, Director, Palliative Care Division at Highland and Dr. Rajbala Thakur, Director of Cancer Pain Services at URMC and Palliative Care Consultant, and their departments are working in collaboration to offer the service which will expand advanced medication and procedural options to relieve pain.

Chin-Lin Ching, M.D.
Director, Palliative Care Division, HH

Rajbala Thakur, M.D.
Director, Cancer Pain Services, URMC

“At Highland we care for many patients with chronic pain and complex needs,” said Dr. Ching. “Pain management is an important discipline, and finding alternate ways to effectively manage complex pain in ways that minimize the use of opioids is a priority, so we are excited that we have been able to work together to create this service.”

The service is for inpatients with

• Uncontrolled pain
• Complex pain medication transitions
• Preexisting interventional pain device (intrathecal pump etc.)
• Suboptimal pain control or adverse effects from current analgesic therapy   

“Treatment for pain is constantly changing,” said Dr. Ching. “We need to become experts in treating pain in ways that go beyond injection, beyond opioids and steroids, and learn about and use alternative pain treatment modalities. Developing this service from scratch has been a tremendous learning process for me as a leader in the hospital. I am grateful that Dr. Thakur stepped up to collaborate with us on the service. She has built many services at Strong, and she was committed to helping us develop this important service at Highland.”

Different types of pain like cancer pain and acute /chronic non-cancer pain are approached in different ways. “Pain management is a growing specialty but even at the current time we have a number of management options and strategies that help us develop a Patient Centered Analgesic plan for a given patient,” said Dr. Thakur. “We are very passionate about exploring multimodal pain interventional options that are in the best interest of each patient.”

Hospitalists are finding the service to be very effective. “I have had a great experience with the service,” said Dr. Matthew McIntosh. “They have been clear about recommendations, followed up appropriately and provided guidance for ongoing treatment after they have signed off making for a very positive experience.”

Those interested in a consultation should page the Highland Hospital Palliative Care On Call provider via the smartweb paging system.

10/19/2023