Back pain is the most common spine disorders
patient come to see physician.
And spinal disorders are not only complicated,
but also are the leading cause of a disability
and loss of a productivity.
So that's why we formed the spine center
at the Rush University Medical Center.
In our comprehensive care center,
we included multi-specialty providers
including physical medicine, the rehab physicians,
neurologists, neurosurgeons,
and the nurse practitioners for the coordinated care.
Patients are going to get an individualized treatment plan
through an interdisciplinary lens.
So you are going to have surgeons, non-surgeons, therapists,
everyone weighing in to create a plan
for a specific patient and their problem
to get them to where they want to be.
You are going to get Rush.
This is an institution that has invested a lot
into making patient outcomes matter.
You're going to get high quality safe care here
and you're going to get outcome based metrics.
Back pain is very multifactorial
and there are typically a variety of causes of back pain
even in the same patient.
And so one of the things that we do pretty well
is help chip away which elements of the back pain
are most inhibiting their functional wellbeing.
And I think one of the keys for us
is that when we evaluate a patient,
we're not trying to say,
"Look we're going to get you pain free,"
'cause that's not a great goal.
Rather, we want to say, "What do you want to be able to do?
"And how do we get you there?"
For most patients, we do not need the surgeries.
And we provide a long surgical, comprehensive care.
And this including medication treatment
and supervised physical therapy for back education,
and body reconditioning, and functional improvement.
We can also provide injections.
And such as ultrasound or floral guided injections
for joint injection, nerve blocks, epidural injections,
and then eventually we can offer radiofrequency ablation.
It may include medication,
it may include non-pharmacologic modalities
but it's all about trying to hone in
on what's causing the greatest source of pain
and the greatest source of impairment
to their daily function.
And so for us, I think that's a really important element.
As being part of the spine care team,
people are familiar with x-rays, MRI,
which can be beneficial in part of a diagnostic workup,
but frequently a very detailed physical exam
is more important than any imaging modality.
The other nice element of what we're able to do
is utilize our physical therapy colleagues
to help work with our diagnostic abilities to say like,
"Hey we think it's this, can you try this modality?"
Whether it's electrical simulation or ultrasound
or something like that to say, can you see if that helps
with their pain management or their issues?
Because we have such good relationships
with our surgical colleagues, we're able to work
to create a presurgical rehabilitation plan for them.
So we can come up with,
'Okay, you're going to be doing this particular surgery.'
We are going to focus on strengthening these muscles,
work on these transfer techniques
before they even go to the operating room
so that by the time they come out of surgery,
they've got a huge advantage in their recovery.
And it's kind of focusing on all those little pieces
that affect a patient's ability
to get back to their normal routine.
And for us, we can help oversee a physical therapy course
but we can also help say, all right,
your pain isn't well control after the surgery.
What are we missing?
And come up with a treatment plan specifically
for a new pain that wasn't there before surgery.
I think the most important thing I do
with patients when I see them
is kind of walk them through how they got here
and what we can do going forward.
Spending a lot of time setting expectations and goals
is I think paramount to success in back pain patients.
So a provider sending someone to our program
should feel very comfortable
that the patient is going to get what's right
and what the evidence supports.
When you send someone to see us,
they're going to get treated with dignity and respect
and they're going to get treated as a person.
They're not going to get treated as a diagnosis, as a scan.
They're going to be seen and treated
as the person that you sent,
not just as another number in our queue.