Acute Pain Service Referral
The Acute Pain Service (APS) is available to all inpatients of BC Children’s Hospital who require services to help support their comfort and pain care during their admission.
The APS team assesses and makes decisions regarding the need for additional analgesic, sedative and/or comfort medications. We provide consults and make recommendations to optimize care.
The attending anesthesiologist automatically refers post-operative patients who have regional nerve block catheters before they are admitted to a unit at BC Children's Hospital.
Referral overview
Health care professionals (e.g. nurses, physicians, nurse practitioners, social workers and physiotherapists) at BC Children's Hospital can refer current inpatients to the Acute Pain Service.
Referral steps
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Assessment
You can refer patients to the Acute Pain Service if:
- They are experiencing pain that is becoming too difficult to manage
- You feel that additional modalities will benefit a patient’s comfort (e.g. dexmedetomidine, ketamine, PCA, etc.)
- Their symptoms are worsening
Consider an early consultation if a patient has:
- Burns
- Complex pain
- Sickle cell anemia
- Acute or chronic pain
- Chimeric antibody infusion
- History of substance use
- Inflammatory bowel disease
- Complex medical history or syndrome
Consider referring when reasonable and available baseline analgesic options are not sufficient to manage the patient's comfort, thus affecting their function and recovery.
Please contact the APS team if you are a referring sub-specialty requiring:
- Care management and consultation for a child admitted to BC Children's Hospital
- Pre-anesthesia planning and a pain care plan prior to surgery
- Specific out-patient follow-up for regional interventions
- Medication weaning to optimize pain-management opioid-sparing techniques
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Send the referral
There are three ways to contact us to make a referral. Please include:
- All relevant medical and surgical history
- What analgesic medications have been administered
- Any significant side effects experienced from analgesic medications
- What the goals of care are for that specific patient
Anesthesiologist on call
Available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. To contact the anesthesiologist on call, please:
- Call switchboard at 604-875-2000 and ask for the Acute Pain Service physician on call
- Call switchboard and ask them to page the physician on call
Acute Pain Service nurse practitioners
Available from Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. To contact the nurse practitioners:
- Call the switchboard at 604-875-2000 and ask for the Acute Pain Services nurse practitioner
- Page 41-02435
- Vocera:
- “Call Acute Pain Service Nurse Practitioner”
- “Call APS NP”
- “Call Kathleen Duddy”
- “Call Jennifer Dunlop”
Acute Pain Service physiotherapist
Available from Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. To contact the physiotherapist:
- Vocera “APS Physio”