No pain, no... well, pain

A new doctor specializing in pain management is coming to Kimball. Dr. Timo Quickert, MD, is an interventional radiologist and pain management specialist from Johnstown, Colo. Dr. Quickert will be seeing patients in the new Kimball Health Pain Clinic located at Kimball Health Services, which opened on Aug. 24.

“Dr. Broomfield (medical director at Kimball Health Services) and I first started considering a non-narcotic pain clinic over a year ago,” Kimball Health Services CEO Ken Hunter said. “We knew the government was going to put out new tougher guidelines with respect to prescriptions. It now appears that a recommendation is going to be no narcotic prescriptions for more than a seven-day supply. We began interviewing doctors around nine months ago. I visited Dr. Quickerts offices six months ago and was very impressed. Dr. Broomfield has always believed in treating the cause vs. all the problems that come from longterm use of narcotics.”

According to a recent news release, Dr. Quickert is board-certified with more than 10 years of experience in interventional radiology. His wife, Julie Quickert, is a board-certified acute care nurse practitioner who specializes in caring for patients with vascular and pain problems. Together they operate clinics in Johnstown, Colo., Haxtun, Colo., Bridgeport and now Kimball.

Currently patients are seen in the new pain clinic once a month, however, that is expected to increase to two days each month beginning in October, according to Kimball Health Services CEO Ken Hunter

Julie will be in Kimball once a month along with an ultrasound technician, to perform assessments and coordinate care, according to Hunter. Dr. Quickert will then come to Kimball one or two weeks later with dates for the clinic announced 30-60 days in advance.

“One of the biggest columns of my work is to really try to help people with chronic or acute pain in a way that it’s not just prescribing medication, but trying to integrate multiple facets of pain management,” Dr. Quickert said. “We try to get to the source of pain, and not just try to dampen the symptoms with narcotics.”

Interventional radiology, Dr. Quickert explained, involves treating many conditions that once required surgery. He treats patients suffering from acute or chronic pain using minimally invasive procedures such as using x-rays and ultrasound to guide tiny instruments, such as catheters, lasers or needles through blood vessels or the skin.

The goal of interventional pain management is to deliver pain treatment at the source, Quickert said, for people suffering from back pain, neck pain, headaches, muscle and joint pain, sciatica and other conditions. He also performs vertebroplasty/kyphoplasty to stabilize vertebral fractures and platelet rich plasma (PRP) treatments for accelerated healing of the underlying cause of pain from injury, osteoarthritis, plantar fasciitis and other conditions.

Vericose vein and spider vein treatments are also available to reduce pain and improve appearance. The Quickerts also treat deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and chronic pelvic pain caused by varicose veins in the lower abdomen.

Dr. Quickert will perform many of his procedures at Kimball Health Services utilizing new equipment provided by the Kimball Hospital Foundation. According Broomfield, this new equipment and Quickert’s special skills at Kimball’s new pain clinic will offer a new opportunity to patients who have given up hope against their pain.

“We required two new pieces of capital equipment that cost about $120,000. A portable C-Arm (an imaging enhancing intensifier) to assist in guided image injections and an a multi-use ultrasound machine,” Hunter said. “KHS is grateful to The Kimball Hospital Foundation for purchasing the equipment for us.”

“There are a lot of patients who have given up,” Broomfield said. “They don’t want to take strong narcotics. They don’t want to take even the oral anti-inflammatory drugs because it hurts their stomach. So they sit in the chair at home. They don’t want to get out because it hurts too much. And then from a sedentary lifestyle comes many other complications in a person’s health that makes it very difficult for them to then re-integrate. If we can decrease the pain and start them back to a more active lifestyle, then those individuals have a much better chance of living a much fuller, happier, more productive life.”

The new Kimball Health Pain Clinic goes into operation amid growing nationwide concerns about painkiller addiction and abuse. Earlier this year, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new federal guidelines on the use of powerful drugs like OxyContin and Vicodin. The guidelines, which are voluntary for doctors to follow, say prescription painkillers should not be a first choice for treating common ailments such as arthritis and back pain. The CDC also wants doctors to prescribe the lowest effective dose possible.

“The type of procedures that Dr. Quickert is going to be providing for us don’t require a lot of those pain meds,” Broomfield said. “They require actually doing some fixes on the problems that are going on, so that the patients maybe won’t need as many pain medicines down the road.”

“We can try to help the patient get some hope back,” Quickert added. “There’s nothing more rewarding for a physician to see a patient that you saw the first time in a lot of distress, and the next time he walks in to your office and says, ‘Doc, I feel great. Thank you.’ There’s nothing more rewarding.”