Acute Pain Service

Overview

The Ottawa Hospital Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine (DAPM) Acute Pain Service (APS) is one of a few specialty services that provide consultative support for hospital patients with pain and complex analgesic needs (along with Palliative Care, Substance Use Program and the Rehab Centre Pain Clinic).   The TOH APS program led by anesthesiologists, started in 1990, was one of the very first to become established in Canada and has continued to grow to serve our population since then.  Our APS program provides APS consultative coverage to the Civic and General campuses for patients with both acute and complex pain needs while admitted to hospital.

Our Services

The Acute Pain Service (APS) provides pain control in cases of acute pain after major surgery and trauma for patients admitted to hospital.  The APS can provide advanced pain management modalities such as:

• Intravenous patient controlled analgesia with opioids (IV PCA)
• Continuous epidural infusions
• Intravenous lidocaine and ketamine infusions and
• Nerve blocks with continuous local anesthetic infusions. 

We also offer expertise with advanced oral multi-modal analgesia and continue to expand our use of care pathways for commonly seen presentations (eg. rib fractures, hip fractures, lower limb amputations).

Our Team

• Dr. Sarah Tierney – Corporate Medical Director of The Ottawa Hospital Acute Pain Service
• Jennifer Taylor – BScN, MEd. Advanced Practice Nurse TOH APS
• Julie-Anne Houle and Allison Wall – BScN, Registered Nurses TOH APS
• Dr. Sarah Tierney – Civic Campus Medical Lead for Acute Pain Service
• Dr. Catherine Smyth – General Campus Medical Lead for Acute Pain Service

The DAPM’s Civic and General Campuses each have a sub-group of physicians with a sub-specialty interest in acute pain that rotate through the APS on a weekly basis. Our dedicated nursing team with considerable pain management expertise, offer continuous coverage during week days.

How to refer a patient to the Acute Pain Service

Patients are seen by the APS on a referral basis only. Patients with chronic pain or a significant opioid use history scheduled for major surgery, should ideally be referred to Anesthesiology via the pre-assessment unit so a patient specific peri-operative pain management plan can be formulated.

APS may also be consulted to assist with pain management in trauma patients, procedural analgesia, persistent post-surgical pain, non-surgical patients, etc. when the attending service has not been successful with oral multi-modal pain management. Consultations must be made directly from referring physician to the APS.  Direct telephone or EPIC communication is strongly encouraged.

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Last updated on: May 13th, 2025