Multi-disciplinary Team Assessments
The Welcome Back MRI and Pain Management Centre offers a service that is not currently offered in the public health care system. In the public system a patient is referred by their family physician to a medical or surgical specialist for an assessment of their pain-related disorder. The patient will wait for weeks, months or sometimes years to be seen by the specialist. In the meantime the patient may try different forms of treatment such as physiotherapy, chiropractic treatment, massage therapy, acupuncture and other forms of therapy. Many of these types of treatment are not covered under the health care system and are paid for by the patient. The patient is usually prescribed pain medication which often have side effects and do not relieve their pain. Not knowing what is causing their pain or what to expect results in fear, anxiety, depression and withdrawal from normal activity. If this continues it can lead to long term disability which becomes increasingly more difficult to cure.
The Welcome Back Centre has a number of features that are distinctly different than the public system. All assessments are done by a team of health care providers. A patient cannot be seen by just a physician. The team consists of at least one physician, one biomechanical practitioner who is either a chiropractor, massage therapist, a physiotherapist or an occupational therapist, a nutritionist and a psychologist or clinical councilor. How many members are involved in the team is individualized for each client based on the nature and complexity of their condition. The size of the team varies between 4 and 10 assessors. The assessment evaluates the physical as well as the emotional factors that contribute to the patients pain problem. This is all provided on an expedited bases. Assessments can usually be arranged and conducted within a few weeks. Once the assessment has been completed the entire team of health care professionals, even those not involved in the assessment, review and discuss the clients history, investigations and physical findings to determine a differential diagnosis. Based on this further investigations and treatment recommendations will be made. All of the information is compiled into a document which is given to the client to review for 1 week. The client then meets with one of the assessing physicians to discuss the findings and recommendations for investigations and treatment. This expedited, multi-disciplinary team approach to assessing a person with a painful condition is the hallmark of this private medical facility.