UMC pain center moves to new locale

Matt Heistand Arizona Daily Wildcat The Pain Management Center at UMC has a new, permanent location at 1835 E. Lee St. The clinic's new hours are 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.

That's why University Medical Center's Pain Management Center staff decided to made it easier on patients by moving to a new location at 1835 E. Lee St.

The center, which opened in 1996, moved from place to place within the hospital before landing in a separate building last summer. Doctors once treated patients in out-patient or neurology clinics at the hospital - whichever had room.

"We didn't have a permanent facility before with offices and where we saw patients in the same place," said program coordinator Lynn Stenhouse, a registered nurse.

The Pain Management Center consolidated facilities and expanded space to serve patients. The office also extended its hours from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.

The center's main focus is to ease and reduce patients' pain through specialized therapies and treatments. Pain relief is designed to speed up recovery time and shorten hospital stays.

Patients with surgical and long-term pain can still get treatment at the hospital.

UMC's pain treatment center holds a particular niche in the Tucson market, offering implant therapies such as spinal cord stimulation and spinal drug infusion.

Spinal cord stimulation electrically stimulates nerves to lessen pain. Spinal drug infusion helps deliver medication directly to the nerves.

Dr. Bennet Davis, the center's medical director and board-certified pain management specialist, said his field is improving.

"What would've been fatal a hundred years ago can be treated with surgical techniques," Davis said.

Irene Hsiao can be reached via e-mail at Irene.Hsiao@wildcat.arizona.edu.