Holistic Pain Management begins collaboration with North Shore Health

Holistic Pain Management (HPM), a company that partners with hospitals, clinics and other health care facilities to provide non-surgical pain management services, has begun a collaboration with North Shore Health.

Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist Sam Pykkonen began seeing patients in clinic on Dec. 16 and held her first procedure day Jan. 14.

“I do non-surgical pain management,” Pykkonen told WTIP. “I’m using a fancy x-ray machine called a C arm, and that takes real-time pictures of people’s bony anatomy, and I deliver local anesthetic steroid to different regions of the spine.”

Previously, patients in Cook County seeking pain management services often had to travel to Duluth and wait up to three months to see a provider. Pykkonen said offering care locally makes more sense than requiring patients to travel.

“I’ll be up here every first and third Tuesday to do clinic,” Pykkonen said. “And then every second and fourth Wednesday, if in clinic we deem that an injection is appropriate for pain, that’s when I’ll be doing the injections for people.”

Chronic pain is generally defined as pain that lasts longer than three months and does not resolve on its own. Conditions may include arthritis, muscle pain, joint pain or lower back pain.

Holistic Pain Management’s approach focuses on improving patients’ function so they can begin physical therapy and rehabilitation.

“When [HPM] looks for hospitals, they look for what type of rehab program is involved, because that is hugely important to have,” Pykkonen said.

According to the Cook County Age-Friendly Action Plan, access to specialized health care services is a top concern among older adults in the county. The addition of pain management services at North Shore Health allows patients to receive care closer to home.

“I think one of the biggest things that I find as well is that even though I’ve been working in medicine and healthcare since 1999, this is a specialty that a lot of people don’t know about, and you only know what you know,” Pykkonen said. “You know, if you’re not sure if it’s a chronic pain thing, if you’re not sure where this pain is coming from, come in, get seen, and we can figure it out, and it’s close to home.”

Patients can schedule appointments by contacting a Holistic Pain Management clinic through its online scheduling tools, calling the nurse hotline on its website, or requesting a referral from their primary care provider.

WTIP spoke with Pykkonen about her services and how she works with patients. Audio of that conversation can be found below.