Havre, Montana – Northern Montana Health Care welcomes a new Provider to the team at the Northern Montana Specialty Medical Center. Shane Jenson, FNP, will be seeing patients referred for chronic Pain Management beginning August 20th.
Pain Management is a relatively new specialty of health care. Over 100 million Americans are living with chronic pain, and in fact, pain is the one of the most common reasons that patients seek medical attention. Chronic Pain is pain that has lasted beyond the normal healing time for a given injury or illness, lasting 3 months or longer. What begins as Acute Pain; pain which is normally resolved after tissue healing in most individuals; then evolves into Chronic Pain.
Pain Management and the techniques used to treat Chronic Pain can vary greatly depending on the cause and location of the pain. The Pain Management clinician has the role of identifying the source of the pain as well as determining the best treatment options. Treatment options can include interventional procedures, medication management, physical therapy, psychological counseling and support, acupuncture, massage, other alternative techniques, and/or referral to other medical specialists.
Referrals to a Pain Management provider, like Mr. Jenson, should come from a patient’s primary care provider. Often, the primary care provider will have tried several common treatments for Chronic Pain, and a Chronic Pain provider can complement those therapies with specialized knowledge and advanced pain management techniques.
“Having Shane on our team will allow us to provide a larger range of care to our patients”, stated Karrie Lien, MD, Family Medicine Provider. “Being able to refer our patients to him and keep their care local is a tremendous advantage to the communities of the Hi-Line.”
For more information, patients are encouraged to speak with their primary care providers for referral.