Inpatients
At Boston Medical Center, patients with sickle cell disease are admitted to the hospital under the supervision of members of the sickle cell center who have special training and many years of experience managing the complications of sickle cell disease. Patients stay in the nursing where nurses also have extensive experience in caring for patients with sickle cell disease. Consultations with all subspecialty services are available, as needed. These include, but are not limited to obstetrics, orthopedics, pain management, pulmonary hypertension, ophthalmology, IV port management.

Day Hospital 617-414-3841
A special treatment unit for management of pain in adults was opened in July 2002. The goal of this 2-bed unit is to give patients rapid access to individualized state-of-the-art care for acute painful episodes. As part of their continuing care, patients are told to call the unit when they develop a painful episode that they believe cannot be managed at home with oral analgesics. When admitted directly to the unit, IV access and physiologic monitoring is established, needed laboratory and imaging studies are done and pain treatment is started. After 2 to 6 hours of treatment a decision is made to either discharge the patient home or to admit to the inpatient service. Usually, the intensive treatment allows the patient to return home.

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updated 8.15.08