This is a list of pain management-driven surgery centers researched and compiled by the Becker's ASC Review editorial staff. Surgery centers do not pay and cannot pay to be selected for inclusion on this list. Centers are listed in alphabetical order. This list is not an endorsement of any individual's or organization's clinical abilities.
Advanced Surgical Concepts – Pain ASC (Baton Rouge, La.). Advanced Surgical Concepts is an outpatient surgery center located in the same facility as Comprehensive Pain, the state's only accredited center for pain treatment specializing in spinal cord stimulation, selective nerve root blocks, gastrointestinal pain, fibromyalgia, cancer pain, diabetic neuropathy and chronic pain. The surgery center has four accredited pain management physicians: Sandra Weitz, MD, Alpesh Patel, MD, Tulsi Bice, MD, and Koshy Mathia, MD. In addition to pain management, the center also performs procedures in urology, plastic surgery and chiropractic specialties in its two operating rooms. The ASC is state-licensed and accredited. www.advancedsurgicalbatonrouge.com
Boston PainCare Surgery Center (Waltham, Mass.). This AAAHC-accredited clinic opened in May 2007 and currently has 10 board-certified physicians. The center uses technology to quantitatively measure patients' pain levels and functionality improvements. The center averages 3,700 procedures a year, 3,400 of which are pain management. Treatment includes radiofrequency ablation and spinal cord stimulator implants.
"We are an integrated practice, which sets us apart from other pain centers," says Kathleen Leitao, MM, RN, CNOR, the center's director of surgery. "We have several specialists treating one singular disease: pain. We believe in looking at the patient as a whole and not finding just one single solution." www.bostonpaincare.com
Centers for Pain Solutions (Nashua, N.H.). The Centers for Pain Solutions was started in 1999 and has five board-certified physicians and one nurse practitioner who practice in three locations throughout New Hampshire.
"I think what sets us apart is that our physicians are highly qualified and educated," says Linda Childs, the center's officer manager. "I think we're very compassionate to the pain issues of our patients."
The staff rotates between the three centers and performs 15-30 procedures on a daily basis. Pain Solutions offers discography, spinal cord stimulation, spinal catheters, radiofrequency nerve lesioning and disc nucleoplasty, among other treatments. All the centers are accredited by AAAHC. www.painsolutionsusa.com
Center for Pain Control (Wyomissing, Pa.). James H. Hsu, MD, and Jason T. Bundy, MD, have treated low back and leg pain, neck and arm pain, whiplash, headaches, musculoskeletal pain, reflex sympathetic dystrophy, diabetic and vascular neuropathies, cancer pain and facial pain at this ASC for more than 12 years. Dr. Hsu has expertise in regional anesthesia techniques, especially ultrasound-guided regional blocks. The center also employs a licensed acupuncturist. Staff constantly measure treatment outcomes and both patient and referring physician satisfaction. www.centerforpaincontrol.net
Christiana Spine Center (Newark, Del.). The Christiana Spine Center has been in operation on the Christiana Care Hospital campus since June 2000 and operates an ASC that was created 2.5 years ago near the hospital campus. The center's facility manager, Valerie Manges, says the ASC specializes in spinal epidurals, discography and nerve ablations. The 9 physicians also have experience in electromyography, fluoroscopic spine procedure, physical medicine, rehabilitation and spinal reconstructive surgery, and perform more than 5,000 procedures annually. The ASC is located in a medical office building that offers massage therapy, physical therapy and chiropractic care. This center is AAAHC accredited. www.christianaspinecenter.com/surgerycenter.html
Hallandale Outpatient Surgical Center (Hallandale Beach, Fla.). This multi-specialty center was founded in 2006. Of the 24 physicians who practice at the center, seven of them are pain management physicians. About 80 percent of the center's cases are in pain management — around 1,400 cases a year. Treatment options include peripheral nerve stimulation, spinal cord stimulation, percutaneous disc decompression, interscalene catheters for frozen shoulder manipulation, cervical and lumbar discography, trigeminal nerve blocks and radiofrequency denervation and lumbar sympathetic nerve blocks and radiofrequency denervation. The center is state- and Medicare-licensed and accredited by AAAHC. www.hbosc.com
Harrisburg Interventional Pain Management Center (Mechanicsburg, Pa.). Harrisburg Interventional Pain Management Center is a Medicare-certified and AAAHC-accredited facility licensed by Pennsylvania to provide ambulatory and outpatient surgery. The center is exclusively focused on interventional pain management and is located in the same building as Susquehanna Valley Pain Management, where the three ASC physician-partners — Malik Momin, MD, Norman Haueisen, MD, and Maximilian Braun, MD — practice. Procedures include radiofrequency lesioning, lumbar discograms, trochanteric bursa injection and facet joint injections. www.susquehannapaincenter.com
High Pointe Surgery Center (Lake Elmo, Minn.). High Pointe Surgery Center is a multi-specialty, four OR center that offers orthopedics, hand surgery, plastic surgery, podiatry, ophthalmology, adult and pediatric urology, gynecology and pain management. Pain management contributes 20 percent of the annual gross revenue and one-third of the center's case volume — the center is on track to perform 1,500 pain procedures in 2011. The interventional pain management program at High Pointe Surgery Center was initiated in 1999, and treatment includes trigger point injections, facet blocks, nerve stimulators and radiofrequency procedures. Two physicians perform pain management procedures. The center's outcome data and patient satisfaction scores are regularly above the national average, says Keri Talcott, the director of corporate communication at Surgical Management Professionals, the company that manages the center. www.hpsurgery.com
Hyde Park Pain Management (Hyde Park, Mass.). Hyde Park Pain Management received its state license in June 2010, and its two board-certified physicians now perform more than 75 pain management procedures each month. Administrator Kathy Kelleher says the center's state-of-the-art facility sets it apart; it includes technology and equipment to do trials for neurostimulation, nerve stimulation and radiofrequency procedures. The center also has Spanish-speaking staff to cater to the towns and cities around Boston. The center is accredited by AAAHC.
Idaho Physical Medicine and Rehab (Meridian, Idaho). The surgery center opened in 2007, but the center's five physician-owners have been practicing in the area for more than 15 years. The center performs 2,000-2,300 procedures annually, and all are focused on pain management, says Marlene Stowe, the center's administrator. Services include fluoroscopic spine injections, radiofrequency ablation, spinal cord stimulation and acupuncture.
While the center doesn't perform spine stimulation implants, it performs trials where the leads are implanted for a few days to determine if the implant would help with pain management. If the implant helps, the center refers the patient to surgeon who can insert the permanent implant. This center is accredited by AAAHC. www.idahopmr.com
Interventional Spine and Pain Management ASC (Conyers, Ga.). Robin Fowler, MD, founded Interventional Spine and Pain Management ASC in 2005 and was listed on the Becker's ASC Review list of "70 of the Best Pain Management Physicians in America." The flagship Conyers location opened in 2007 and has two operating rooms, is licensed exclusively for single-specialty pain management and performs more than 7,000 annually. The ASC is accredited by the Joint Commission.
Treatment provided at the ASC includes peripheral nerve stimulators, spinal cord stimulators, transforaminal epidurals and radiofrequency ablation. The center's website includes videos, learning materials and a patient satisfaction survey. Interventional Spine and Pain Management also operates five locations around Georgia (Atlanta, Conyers, Covington, Monroe and Sandy Springs), as well as three additional centers in Punta Gorda, Fla., and Alamogordo and Roswell, NM.
www.spinepains.com
Matrix Surgery Center (Saginaw, Mich.). The Matrix Surgery Center is a $3 million, 3,500-square-foot expansion of the Matrix Medical facility, which has been treating pain in the Saginaw area since 1999, when it was associated with Covenant HealthCare. Richard Lingenfelter, MD, founded the private practice in Feb. 2003 and practiced there until his death in 2009. The current physicians are Michael Papenfuse, DO, and Diane Czuk-Smith, MD. The center has three operating rooms and five treatment rooms. In addition to Medicare certification, the Matrix Surgery Center earned the Joint Commission's Gold Seal of Approval in 2007. www.matrixpain.com/surgery_center.html
New England Pain Care, Pain and Wellness Center (Peabody, Mass.). New England Pain Care, founded in 2003 by Julien Vaisman, MD, is located in the same building as the Pain and Wellness Center, which Dr. Vaisman founded in 1996. The ambulatory surgery center has three board-certified physicians — Dr. Vaisman, Joe Ordia, MD, and Benjamin Kripke, MD — as well as specialists in areas such as psychology, physical therapy and acupuncture. At the center of the patient-focused treatment is the Providers' Roundtable, a bi-weekly meeting where the entire provider team reviews individual cases.
The center's website includes videos of physicians explaining different procedures such as spinal cord stimulation and radiofrequency ablation that they call PWCtv. The center is accredited by AAAHC. www.newenglandpaincare.com
Overlake Surgery Center (Bellevue, Wash.). This AAAHC-accredited center was founded in 2000 as a joint venture between Overlake Hospital Medical Center and several physicians who still perform cases at the center. Although the center is multispecialty, about 50 percent of its cases are in pain management, says Executive Director Wendy Taylor. The center's eight pain management physicians perform 3,500 interventional pain management procedures annually including vertebroplasty, spinal cord stimulators and hypogastric plexus blocks. Paul Dreyfuss, MD, is a recent past president of the International Spine Intervention Society, and Ray Baker, MD, is a recent past president of the North American Spine Society and vice president of the National Association of Spine Specialists. www.overlakesurgery.com
Pain Care Center of Georgia (Stockbridge, Ga.). This AAAHC-accredited center was opened in 2009 by Vincent Galan, MD, as part of Pain Care of Georgia, a group of four clinics and one ASC. Dr. Galan is board certified in anesthesia and double-board certified in pain medicine by both the American Academy of Pain Medicine and the American Board of Anesthesiology's subspecialty certification in pain management. He specializes in minimally invasive spine surgery, cervical, thoracic and lumbar radiofrequency, spinal cord stimulators, discography, facet joint disease, complex regional pain syndrome and neuropathies. Amit Patel, MD, also practices at the center and specializes in facet neurotomy for spinal arthritis pain, minimally invasive herniated disc decompression, radiofrequency ablation for neuropathic pain, and spinal cord stimulation for failed back surgery syndrome. The center is involved in clinical trials. www.georgiapaincare.com
Pain Management Center of Paducah (Paducah, Ky.). The Pain Management Center of Paducah is the home of Laxmaiah Manchikanti, MD, who serves as medical director of the center as well as chairman of the board and CEO of the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians and the Society of Interventional Pain Management Surgery. Dr. Manchikanti is one of the most renowned pain management physicians in the country. The center began operation in 1992, and now performs more than 9,000 procedures annually. Although the center also offers orthopedic surgical services and ophthalmology services, more than 80 percent of its practice is in pain management. The center is accredited by AAAHC.
"In essence, our center was the first in the nation approved for pain management procedures," says Dr. Manchikanti. "Now there are close to 300 [pain management] centers across the country." www.thepainmd.com
Pain Management Center of Virginia (Reston, Va.). This surgery center is affiliated with the Virginia Spine Institute, which has been in practice since 1992. The Pain Management Center of Virginia was started in 2006, and the center's two pain management physicians now perform more than 3,500 procedures a year — about 75 percent of the center's total case volume. Treatment includes acupuncture, discography, fluoroscopic guided injections, caudal steroid injections, radiofrequency ablation and spinal cord stimulators.
Erin C. Orr, marketing director of Virginia Spine Institute, says the "all-under-one-roof" model, which includes surgeons, non-operative doctors and physical therapists, sets the center apart. www.spinemd.com
Peninsula Procedure Center (Redwood City, Calif.). The five board-certified physicians at this AAAHC-accredited center perform more than 3,000 pain management procedures annually including epidural injection, nerve blocks, spinal joint block and injections and rhizotomy. The center opened in Sept. 2007 and is managed by MedBridge
"[The center] has retained 95 percent of its original staff since the doors opened, which brings an incredible amount of experience and knowledge to each individual patient and case," says Alex Sumner, sales and marketing, MedBridge "The center and physicians have an exemplary track record of safety and of exceeding high standards of patient care." www.peninsulapc.com
Premier Pain Center (Covington, La.). The center's founding physician, Allan T. Parr, MD, served as the president of the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians and has been practicing pain management in the Covington area since 1994. The center offers specialty procedures such as spinal cord stimulation, drug infusion systems, neurosurgical and permanent anesthetic procedures and vertebroplasty. Physicians are Dr. Parr and Ann Conn, MD. Both Dr. Parr and Dr. Conn were included on the Becker's ASC Review list of "70 of the Best Pain Management Physicians in America." This center is accredited by the AAAHC. www.alparr.com
Riverdale Surgery Center – Pain ASC (Riverdale, N.J.). The center offers treatments for chronic back pain, neck pain, neuropathic pain, sciatica, cancer pain and postoperative pain. The center's physician, Amr Hosny, MD, performs procedures such as lysis of adhesions, radiofrequency ablation and spinal cord stimulation, in addition to all types of steroid injections. Dr. Hosny is board certified in interventional pain medicine, anesthesiology and hospice and palliative medicine. He has lectured on spinal cord stimulation for neuropathic pain and complex regional pain syndrome to pharmacological approaches for chronic pain.
Sioux Falls Surgical Hospital Pain Clinic (Sioux Falls, S.D.). This ASC is located within the Sioux Falls Surgical Center, which was founded in Oct. 1985. The center's medical director, Timothy Metz, MD, is board certified in anesthesiology and perioperative ultrasound and has advanced certification in kyphoplasty and spinal cord stimulation techniques. He was also included on the Becker's ASC Review list of "70 of the Best Pain Management Physicians in America." [https://www.beckersasc.com/orthopedic-spine-driven-ascs/70-of-the-best-pain-management-physicians-in-america.html] The center is accredited by AAAHC. www.sfsurgical.com/pain-management
The Spine Center (Maryland). The Spine Center operates nine locations throughout Maryland. The first of its centers opened in Rockville in 1998, and a 10th center is scheduled for Greenbelt in 2012. Each ASC coexists with a medical practice and is Medicare certified and AAAASF accredited. In 2010, The Spine Center's 15 physicians performed almost 45,000 procedures and have treated more than 70,000 since the center opened in 1998. Treat includes disctrodes, neurostimulation trials and implants and intra-discal electro-thermal ablations. www.myspinedoctors.com
Springfield Surgical Specialists (Springfield, Mo.). Pain management specialists Jim Daily, MD, and Thomas Brooks, MD, work in the same facility with 12 orthopedic surgeons and one general surgeon. Dr. Daily says he helped start the ASC because, "I was in the hospital environment for 22 years and I was tired of not being able to give the type of care and attention that I wanted to give."
He says the center's greatest strengths are fewer time constraints, lower infection rate, less threatening environment, a higher degree of patient respect and customer service. www.springfieldsurgicalasc.com
Stonegate Surgery Center-Pain Management (Austin, Texas). Of the nearly 7,000 procedures this AAAHC-accredited surgery center performs annually, 5,700 of those are in pain management. The physician-owners formed the center five years ago. The center has eight pain physicians and nine surgeons who focus on pain management procedures, orthopedics, podiatry, spine and general surgery. Administrator Lauri Rose, MBA, CASC, says the center's success is attributable to the teamwork approach taken by every staff member.
"The medical and nursing staff work together to provide the best services for the patients entrusted to our care," says Ms. Rose. "This team approach is maintained throughout the continuum of patient care." www.stonegatesurgerycenter.com
Theda Oaks Surgery Center (San Antonio, Texas). The Theda Oaks center opened in 2004 and performs 9,500-10,000 procedures per year — about 40 percent of those in pain management, and the rest in gastroenterology. Urfan Dar, MD, the center's medical director, is board certified by the American Board of Pain Medicine and the American Board of Anesthesiology. Dr. Dar has been in practice in San Antonio since 1994.
He has been listed as one of the top 100 physicians in San Antonio and appeared on the Becker's ASC Review list of "70 of the Best Pain Management Physicians in America." The center offers cervical, thoracic and lumbar procedures such as radiofrequency rhizotomy and percutaneous disk decompressions as well spinal cord stimulator trials and implantations. The center is accredited by AAAHC. www.thedaoaks.com
Total Pain Care (Meridian, Miss.). This AAAHC-accredited center's 18,400-square-foot space has three single-specialty procedure rooms, eight pre-op beds and a nine-bed recovery room. The center and its two board-certified physicians have treated patients for 15 years. Kenneth E. Staggs Jr., MD, was a founding member and past president of the Mississippi Pain Society, and Eric J. Pearson, MD, also served as president of the Mississippi Pain Society and is currently the president-elect of the Southern Pain Society.
Treatments performed at the center includes spinal implants, radiofrequency and fluoroscopically guided pain injections. Total Pain Care also produces a 60-second weekly video series on pain and pain management that airs on the local ABC affiliate and is available on the center's website. www.totalpaincare.org
West Central Surgical Center (Toledo, Ohio). This AAAHC-certified center was created in 2005 and serves Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan. The center's four physicians perform more than 9,000 pain management procedures annually including radiofrequency ablations, transforaminals, pump trials, spinal cord stimulator trials and SI joint injections. The ASC operates at the same location as one of the Centers for Comprehensive Pain Management, a practice started by William G. James, Jr., MD, medical director, in 2003. Dr James is the president of DECA Health and a diplomat of the American Boards of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine. www.cc4pm.com
Wilton Surgery Center (Wilton, Conn.). This AAAHC-accredited ASC specializes in pain management and ophthalmology and opened in Sept. 2005. The center has 24 physicians — three of whom are board-certified in interventional pain management. The center performs 5,000 procedures annually — about 1,700 in pain management — in its two-operating rooms and two-procedure rooms.
Amanda Gunthel, administrator of Wilton Surgery Center, says the center's procedures include everything related to pain management from "epidurals all the way through spinal cord stimulator implants." The center is currently in a partnership with AmSurg and Stamford Hospital, and Ms. Gunthel says that relationship has increased the quality of care. The center is accredited by AAAHC. www.wiltonsurgerycenter.com
Advanced Surgical Concepts – Pain ASC (Baton Rouge, La.). Advanced Surgical Concepts is an outpatient surgery center located in the same facility as Comprehensive Pain, the state's only accredited center for pain treatment specializing in spinal cord stimulation, selective nerve root blocks, gastrointestinal pain, fibromyalgia, cancer pain, diabetic neuropathy and chronic pain. The surgery center has four accredited pain management physicians: Sandra Weitz, MD, Alpesh Patel, MD, Tulsi Bice, MD, and Koshy Mathia, MD. In addition to pain management, the center also performs procedures in urology, plastic surgery and chiropractic specialties in its two operating rooms. The ASC is state-licensed and accredited. www.advancedsurgicalbatonrouge.com
Boston PainCare Surgery Center (Waltham, Mass.). This AAAHC-accredited clinic opened in May 2007 and currently has 10 board-certified physicians. The center uses technology to quantitatively measure patients' pain levels and functionality improvements. The center averages 3,700 procedures a year, 3,400 of which are pain management. Treatment includes radiofrequency ablation and spinal cord stimulator implants.
"We are an integrated practice, which sets us apart from other pain centers," says Kathleen Leitao, MM, RN, CNOR, the center's director of surgery. "We have several specialists treating one singular disease: pain. We believe in looking at the patient as a whole and not finding just one single solution." www.bostonpaincare.com
Centers for Pain Solutions (Nashua, N.H.). The Centers for Pain Solutions was started in 1999 and has five board-certified physicians and one nurse practitioner who practice in three locations throughout New Hampshire.
"I think what sets us apart is that our physicians are highly qualified and educated," says Linda Childs, the center's officer manager. "I think we're very compassionate to the pain issues of our patients."
The staff rotates between the three centers and performs 15-30 procedures on a daily basis. Pain Solutions offers discography, spinal cord stimulation, spinal catheters, radiofrequency nerve lesioning and disc nucleoplasty, among other treatments. All the centers are accredited by AAAHC. www.painsolutionsusa.com
Center for Pain Control (Wyomissing, Pa.). James H. Hsu, MD, and Jason T. Bundy, MD, have treated low back and leg pain, neck and arm pain, whiplash, headaches, musculoskeletal pain, reflex sympathetic dystrophy, diabetic and vascular neuropathies, cancer pain and facial pain at this ASC for more than 12 years. Dr. Hsu has expertise in regional anesthesia techniques, especially ultrasound-guided regional blocks. The center also employs a licensed acupuncturist. Staff constantly measure treatment outcomes and both patient and referring physician satisfaction. www.centerforpaincontrol.net
Christiana Spine Center (Newark, Del.). The Christiana Spine Center has been in operation on the Christiana Care Hospital campus since June 2000 and operates an ASC that was created 2.5 years ago near the hospital campus. The center's facility manager, Valerie Manges, says the ASC specializes in spinal epidurals, discography and nerve ablations. The 9 physicians also have experience in electromyography, fluoroscopic spine procedure, physical medicine, rehabilitation and spinal reconstructive surgery, and perform more than 5,000 procedures annually. The ASC is located in a medical office building that offers massage therapy, physical therapy and chiropractic care. This center is AAAHC accredited. www.christianaspinecenter.com/surgerycenter.html
Hallandale Outpatient Surgical Center (Hallandale Beach, Fla.). This multi-specialty center was founded in 2006. Of the 24 physicians who practice at the center, seven of them are pain management physicians. About 80 percent of the center's cases are in pain management — around 1,400 cases a year. Treatment options include peripheral nerve stimulation, spinal cord stimulation, percutaneous disc decompression, interscalene catheters for frozen shoulder manipulation, cervical and lumbar discography, trigeminal nerve blocks and radiofrequency denervation and lumbar sympathetic nerve blocks and radiofrequency denervation. The center is state- and Medicare-licensed and accredited by AAAHC. www.hbosc.com
Harrisburg Interventional Pain Management Center (Mechanicsburg, Pa.). Harrisburg Interventional Pain Management Center is a Medicare-certified and AAAHC-accredited facility licensed by Pennsylvania to provide ambulatory and outpatient surgery. The center is exclusively focused on interventional pain management and is located in the same building as Susquehanna Valley Pain Management, where the three ASC physician-partners — Malik Momin, MD, Norman Haueisen, MD, and Maximilian Braun, MD — practice. Procedures include radiofrequency lesioning, lumbar discograms, trochanteric bursa injection and facet joint injections. www.susquehannapaincenter.com
High Pointe Surgery Center (Lake Elmo, Minn.). High Pointe Surgery Center is a multi-specialty, four OR center that offers orthopedics, hand surgery, plastic surgery, podiatry, ophthalmology, adult and pediatric urology, gynecology and pain management. Pain management contributes 20 percent of the annual gross revenue and one-third of the center's case volume — the center is on track to perform 1,500 pain procedures in 2011. The interventional pain management program at High Pointe Surgery Center was initiated in 1999, and treatment includes trigger point injections, facet blocks, nerve stimulators and radiofrequency procedures. Two physicians perform pain management procedures. The center's outcome data and patient satisfaction scores are regularly above the national average, says Keri Talcott, the director of corporate communication at Surgical Management Professionals, the company that manages the center. www.hpsurgery.com
Hyde Park Pain Management (Hyde Park, Mass.). Hyde Park Pain Management received its state license in June 2010, and its two board-certified physicians now perform more than 75 pain management procedures each month. Administrator Kathy Kelleher says the center's state-of-the-art facility sets it apart; it includes technology and equipment to do trials for neurostimulation, nerve stimulation and radiofrequency procedures. The center also has Spanish-speaking staff to cater to the towns and cities around Boston. The center is accredited by AAAHC.
Idaho Physical Medicine and Rehab (Meridian, Idaho). The surgery center opened in 2007, but the center's five physician-owners have been practicing in the area for more than 15 years. The center performs 2,000-2,300 procedures annually, and all are focused on pain management, says Marlene Stowe, the center's administrator. Services include fluoroscopic spine injections, radiofrequency ablation, spinal cord stimulation and acupuncture.
While the center doesn't perform spine stimulation implants, it performs trials where the leads are implanted for a few days to determine if the implant would help with pain management. If the implant helps, the center refers the patient to surgeon who can insert the permanent implant. This center is accredited by AAAHC. www.idahopmr.com
Interventional Spine and Pain Management ASC (Conyers, Ga.). Robin Fowler, MD, founded Interventional Spine and Pain Management ASC in 2005 and was listed on the Becker's ASC Review list of "70 of the Best Pain Management Physicians in America." The flagship Conyers location opened in 2007 and has two operating rooms, is licensed exclusively for single-specialty pain management and performs more than 7,000 annually. The ASC is accredited by the Joint Commission.
Treatment provided at the ASC includes peripheral nerve stimulators, spinal cord stimulators, transforaminal epidurals and radiofrequency ablation. The center's website includes videos, learning materials and a patient satisfaction survey. Interventional Spine and Pain Management also operates five locations around Georgia (Atlanta, Conyers, Covington, Monroe and Sandy Springs), as well as three additional centers in Punta Gorda, Fla., and Alamogordo and Roswell, NM.
www.spinepains.com
Matrix Surgery Center (Saginaw, Mich.). The Matrix Surgery Center is a $3 million, 3,500-square-foot expansion of the Matrix Medical facility, which has been treating pain in the Saginaw area since 1999, when it was associated with Covenant HealthCare. Richard Lingenfelter, MD, founded the private practice in Feb. 2003 and practiced there until his death in 2009. The current physicians are Michael Papenfuse, DO, and Diane Czuk-Smith, MD. The center has three operating rooms and five treatment rooms. In addition to Medicare certification, the Matrix Surgery Center earned the Joint Commission's Gold Seal of Approval in 2007. www.matrixpain.com/surgery_center.html
New England Pain Care, Pain and Wellness Center (Peabody, Mass.). New England Pain Care, founded in 2003 by Julien Vaisman, MD, is located in the same building as the Pain and Wellness Center, which Dr. Vaisman founded in 1996. The ambulatory surgery center has three board-certified physicians — Dr. Vaisman, Joe Ordia, MD, and Benjamin Kripke, MD — as well as specialists in areas such as psychology, physical therapy and acupuncture. At the center of the patient-focused treatment is the Providers' Roundtable, a bi-weekly meeting where the entire provider team reviews individual cases.
The center's website includes videos of physicians explaining different procedures such as spinal cord stimulation and radiofrequency ablation that they call PWCtv. The center is accredited by AAAHC. www.newenglandpaincare.com
Overlake Surgery Center (Bellevue, Wash.). This AAAHC-accredited center was founded in 2000 as a joint venture between Overlake Hospital Medical Center and several physicians who still perform cases at the center. Although the center is multispecialty, about 50 percent of its cases are in pain management, says Executive Director Wendy Taylor. The center's eight pain management physicians perform 3,500 interventional pain management procedures annually including vertebroplasty, spinal cord stimulators and hypogastric plexus blocks. Paul Dreyfuss, MD, is a recent past president of the International Spine Intervention Society, and Ray Baker, MD, is a recent past president of the North American Spine Society and vice president of the National Association of Spine Specialists. www.overlakesurgery.com
Pain Care Center of Georgia (Stockbridge, Ga.). This AAAHC-accredited center was opened in 2009 by Vincent Galan, MD, as part of Pain Care of Georgia, a group of four clinics and one ASC. Dr. Galan is board certified in anesthesia and double-board certified in pain medicine by both the American Academy of Pain Medicine and the American Board of Anesthesiology's subspecialty certification in pain management. He specializes in minimally invasive spine surgery, cervical, thoracic and lumbar radiofrequency, spinal cord stimulators, discography, facet joint disease, complex regional pain syndrome and neuropathies. Amit Patel, MD, also practices at the center and specializes in facet neurotomy for spinal arthritis pain, minimally invasive herniated disc decompression, radiofrequency ablation for neuropathic pain, and spinal cord stimulation for failed back surgery syndrome. The center is involved in clinical trials. www.georgiapaincare.com
Pain Management Center of Paducah (Paducah, Ky.). The Pain Management Center of Paducah is the home of Laxmaiah Manchikanti, MD, who serves as medical director of the center as well as chairman of the board and CEO of the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians and the Society of Interventional Pain Management Surgery. Dr. Manchikanti is one of the most renowned pain management physicians in the country. The center began operation in 1992, and now performs more than 9,000 procedures annually. Although the center also offers orthopedic surgical services and ophthalmology services, more than 80 percent of its practice is in pain management. The center is accredited by AAAHC.
"In essence, our center was the first in the nation approved for pain management procedures," says Dr. Manchikanti. "Now there are close to 300 [pain management] centers across the country." www.thepainmd.com
Pain Management Center of Virginia (Reston, Va.). This surgery center is affiliated with the Virginia Spine Institute, which has been in practice since 1992. The Pain Management Center of Virginia was started in 2006, and the center's two pain management physicians now perform more than 3,500 procedures a year — about 75 percent of the center's total case volume. Treatment includes acupuncture, discography, fluoroscopic guided injections, caudal steroid injections, radiofrequency ablation and spinal cord stimulators.
Erin C. Orr, marketing director of Virginia Spine Institute, says the "all-under-one-roof" model, which includes surgeons, non-operative doctors and physical therapists, sets the center apart. www.spinemd.com
Peninsula Procedure Center (Redwood City, Calif.). The five board-certified physicians at this AAAHC-accredited center perform more than 3,000 pain management procedures annually including epidural injection, nerve blocks, spinal joint block and injections and rhizotomy. The center opened in Sept. 2007 and is managed by MedBridge
"[The center] has retained 95 percent of its original staff since the doors opened, which brings an incredible amount of experience and knowledge to each individual patient and case," says Alex Sumner, sales and marketing, MedBridge "The center and physicians have an exemplary track record of safety and of exceeding high standards of patient care." www.peninsulapc.com
Premier Pain Center (Covington, La.). The center's founding physician, Allan T. Parr, MD, served as the president of the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians and has been practicing pain management in the Covington area since 1994. The center offers specialty procedures such as spinal cord stimulation, drug infusion systems, neurosurgical and permanent anesthetic procedures and vertebroplasty. Physicians are Dr. Parr and Ann Conn, MD. Both Dr. Parr and Dr. Conn were included on the Becker's ASC Review list of "70 of the Best Pain Management Physicians in America." This center is accredited by the AAAHC. www.alparr.com
Riverdale Surgery Center – Pain ASC (Riverdale, N.J.). The center offers treatments for chronic back pain, neck pain, neuropathic pain, sciatica, cancer pain and postoperative pain. The center's physician, Amr Hosny, MD, performs procedures such as lysis of adhesions, radiofrequency ablation and spinal cord stimulation, in addition to all types of steroid injections. Dr. Hosny is board certified in interventional pain medicine, anesthesiology and hospice and palliative medicine. He has lectured on spinal cord stimulation for neuropathic pain and complex regional pain syndrome to pharmacological approaches for chronic pain.
Sioux Falls Surgical Hospital Pain Clinic (Sioux Falls, S.D.). This ASC is located within the Sioux Falls Surgical Center, which was founded in Oct. 1985. The center's medical director, Timothy Metz, MD, is board certified in anesthesiology and perioperative ultrasound and has advanced certification in kyphoplasty and spinal cord stimulation techniques. He was also included on the Becker's ASC Review list of "70 of the Best Pain Management Physicians in America." [https://www.beckersasc.com/orthopedic-spine-driven-ascs/70-of-the-best-pain-management-physicians-in-america.html] The center is accredited by AAAHC. www.sfsurgical.com/pain-management
The Spine Center (Maryland). The Spine Center operates nine locations throughout Maryland. The first of its centers opened in Rockville in 1998, and a 10th center is scheduled for Greenbelt in 2012. Each ASC coexists with a medical practice and is Medicare certified and AAAASF accredited. In 2010, The Spine Center's 15 physicians performed almost 45,000 procedures and have treated more than 70,000 since the center opened in 1998. Treat includes disctrodes, neurostimulation trials and implants and intra-discal electro-thermal ablations. www.myspinedoctors.com
Springfield Surgical Specialists (Springfield, Mo.). Pain management specialists Jim Daily, MD, and Thomas Brooks, MD, work in the same facility with 12 orthopedic surgeons and one general surgeon. Dr. Daily says he helped start the ASC because, "I was in the hospital environment for 22 years and I was tired of not being able to give the type of care and attention that I wanted to give."
He says the center's greatest strengths are fewer time constraints, lower infection rate, less threatening environment, a higher degree of patient respect and customer service. www.springfieldsurgicalasc.com
Stonegate Surgery Center-Pain Management (Austin, Texas). Of the nearly 7,000 procedures this AAAHC-accredited surgery center performs annually, 5,700 of those are in pain management. The physician-owners formed the center five years ago. The center has eight pain physicians and nine surgeons who focus on pain management procedures, orthopedics, podiatry, spine and general surgery. Administrator Lauri Rose, MBA, CASC, says the center's success is attributable to the teamwork approach taken by every staff member.
"The medical and nursing staff work together to provide the best services for the patients entrusted to our care," says Ms. Rose. "This team approach is maintained throughout the continuum of patient care." www.stonegatesurgerycenter.com
Theda Oaks Surgery Center (San Antonio, Texas). The Theda Oaks center opened in 2004 and performs 9,500-10,000 procedures per year — about 40 percent of those in pain management, and the rest in gastroenterology. Urfan Dar, MD, the center's medical director, is board certified by the American Board of Pain Medicine and the American Board of Anesthesiology. Dr. Dar has been in practice in San Antonio since 1994.
He has been listed as one of the top 100 physicians in San Antonio and appeared on the Becker's ASC Review list of "70 of the Best Pain Management Physicians in America." The center offers cervical, thoracic and lumbar procedures such as radiofrequency rhizotomy and percutaneous disk decompressions as well spinal cord stimulator trials and implantations. The center is accredited by AAAHC. www.thedaoaks.com
Total Pain Care (Meridian, Miss.). This AAAHC-accredited center's 18,400-square-foot space has three single-specialty procedure rooms, eight pre-op beds and a nine-bed recovery room. The center and its two board-certified physicians have treated patients for 15 years. Kenneth E. Staggs Jr., MD, was a founding member and past president of the Mississippi Pain Society, and Eric J. Pearson, MD, also served as president of the Mississippi Pain Society and is currently the president-elect of the Southern Pain Society.
Treatments performed at the center includes spinal implants, radiofrequency and fluoroscopically guided pain injections. Total Pain Care also produces a 60-second weekly video series on pain and pain management that airs on the local ABC affiliate and is available on the center's website. www.totalpaincare.org
West Central Surgical Center (Toledo, Ohio). This AAAHC-certified center was created in 2005 and serves Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan. The center's four physicians perform more than 9,000 pain management procedures annually including radiofrequency ablations, transforaminals, pump trials, spinal cord stimulator trials and SI joint injections. The ASC operates at the same location as one of the Centers for Comprehensive Pain Management, a practice started by William G. James, Jr., MD, medical director, in 2003. Dr James is the president of DECA Health and a diplomat of the American Boards of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine. www.cc4pm.com
Wilton Surgery Center (Wilton, Conn.). This AAAHC-accredited ASC specializes in pain management and ophthalmology and opened in Sept. 2005. The center has 24 physicians — three of whom are board-certified in interventional pain management. The center performs 5,000 procedures annually — about 1,700 in pain management — in its two-operating rooms and two-procedure rooms.
Amanda Gunthel, administrator of Wilton Surgery Center, says the center's procedures include everything related to pain management from "epidurals all the way through spinal cord stimulator implants." The center is currently in a partnership with AmSurg and Stamford Hospital, and Ms. Gunthel says that relationship has increased the quality of care. The center is accredited by AAAHC. www.wiltonsurgerycenter.com