More than 50 million Americans live with chronic pain, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study. Many of those living with chronic pain rely on opioid pain medications, which can be habit forming.

Ellsworth County Medical Center’s Pain Clinic, which opened in 2019, aims to address chronic pain issues by offering alternate treatment options close to home.

ECMC CEO Andrew Bair says chronic pain patients experience pain for six months or more at a time. This pain differs from acute pain, or normal pain response from an injury. While pain medications can be useful interventions and treatments, Bair said the pain clinic focuses on other methodologies as well that can help patients who do not want to use opioids and narcotics.

“We live in agricultural area and being in rural areas where you have people out working hard in the fields — or in my case it was out in the woods — there are a lot of injuries that happen that people just deal with chronic pains, and it’s a difficult thing to have to manage over a period of time.”

ECMC partnered with a group out of Wyoming to offer the service, bringing in two providers to the clinic. Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist Jason Werth and Physician Assistant Dan Krause, both with the Kansas division of the Holistic Pain Management group, provide services at the medical center.

Bair said the most common chronic pain issues can involve back injuries or joint pain from arthritis. For people who are either trying to put off a surgery or cannot have surgery, finding ways to make pain more manageable can be attractive options.

“I think those are quite often things that occur,” Bair said. “It may not, for whatever reason, be operational or it’s seen as a stop gap before we try to go to surgery. Surgery is pretty extreme for some things in there. There’s some people that have pain that are completely inoperable and this is an option for them.”

Bair understands chronic pain issues from an automobile accident several years ago. After physical therapy failed to give him more functionality, and disliking the groggy feeling medication gave him, Bair said the pain clinic is a great option for people like him.

“I have personally an inoperable neck injury and I think that there’s too much arthritis in there and the angle of the injury is odd and I myself have gone to the pain clinic,” Bair said. “I think it’s a great option. I think this is a wonderful service, and they offer different modalities in that they seem to be experts in being able to identify what works for what person.”

To schedule an appointment with the Pain Management Team, or to ask questions about what treatment options are available, call (785) 472-3111 ext. 371.