Of the Illinois communities we serve, Collinsville is among the closest to our offices. Our main location at 4477 Woodson Road, St. Louis, MO 63134 is roughly twenty-two miles away, which in practice is a shorter trip than many St. Louis County patients make.
We are licensed in Illinois, and Dr. Gurpreet Singh Padda, MD, MBA, MHP is on staff at Anderson Hospital in Maryville.
I-55/70 west to I-270 west is the usual approach, continuing toward Lambert Airport. I-64 west across the Poplar Street Bridge then north on I-170 is the alternative and is often quicker outside peak hours. Either way, allow about half an hour.
Collinsville sits on a heavy freight and logistics corridor, and a meaningful share of the patients we see from here have work-related injury — lifting injuries to the low back, shoulder and neck problems from repetitive overhead work, and neck pain that began after a vehicle incident on the job.
These cases have a feature that changes how they should be handled: the diagnosis has to be documented, not merely reached. That affects the sequencing of care in ways patients are rarely told about.
In an ordinary case, a physician can reasonably treat a presumed pain generator and adjust if it does not work. In a work injury or liability claim, an unconfirmed diagnosis creates two separate problems.
The first is clinical. Extended courses of therapy aimed at a structure that was never confirmed consume months of a recovery window during which tissue is still capable of responding well.
The second is administrative. “Chronic low back pain” is not a finding. “Pain reproduced on examination, relieved by a fluoroscopically guided block of the right L4 and L5 medial branch nerves, with the response recorded” is a finding. The second is defensible, reproducible and states which structure is involved. It is also, not coincidentally, the same information needed to choose the right treatment.
This is one of the clearer cases where careful diagnosis serves the patient and the paperwork at the same time. See facet joint injection and car accident injuries.
A pain score is a blunt instrument. What matters in a work injury is whether you can lift, reach overhead, sit through a shift or turn your head far enough to drive safely.
Where pain has genuinely limited activity for months, deconditioning becomes part of the problem in its own right — muscle loss, reduced load tolerance and a nervous system that has learned to treat ordinary movement as threatening. Treating only the structure and ignoring that leaves patients pain-free on the table and still unable to work. That is why rehabilitation and graded loading sit alongside the procedures rather than after them.
A consultation and physical examination, review of any imaging you bring, and a plan stating what we think is generating the pain and what would confirm it. You will not be asked to commit to a long course of anything on day one.
Bring imaging, a medication list, and if there is a claim, whatever documentation you have about the mechanism of injury and the date. Mechanism matters diagnostically, not only administratively — a compression injury, a rotational injury and a direct blow damage different structures.
Most major plans and Medicare are accepted. Illinois network plans vary on out-of-state coverage, and Illinois workers’ compensation follows Illinois rules on provider choice, which differ from Missouri’s. Our staff verifies benefits before scheduling — tell them at the outset if a work claim is involved so it is handled correctly from the start.
Tell our staff when you call so it can be verified and set up properly. Illinois claim rules differ from Missouri’s on provider choice.
Often, with modification. Most of our procedures are same-day with no general anesthetic and little or no downtime.
A second opinion is generally available to you; the specifics depend on the claim. Worth asking rather than assuming otherwise.
New patients are usually seen within a few days, and same-day appointments exist for acute pain.
Call (314) 481-5000 or request a time. See our Illinois pain management page for how we work with patients across the river.
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Same-day and emergency appointments are available.