CHICAGO, March 12, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- I-Flow, LLC, a Kimberly-Clark Health Care Company and manufacturer of the ON-Q Pain Relief System (ON-Q), today announced a nationwide bus tour aimed at educating clinicians, administrators and other healthcare professionals about the importance of a post-operative pain management program. Systems, such as ON-Q, enable a reduction in narcotics use, resulting in improved patient outcomes, shorter hospital stays and reduced costs.

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The initiative, On the Road with ON-Q: Post-Operative Pain Education Bus Tour, will function as a mobile classroom, and will travel to 36 hospitals across the United States. Each session will feature a surgeon, anesthesiologist and administrator discussing their experience in pain management and with the ON-Q, I-Flow's elastomeric pain relief pump that administers an automatic and continuous, regulated flow of local anesthetic through a specially designed catheter to the surgical site area. At certain sessions, a patient treated with ON-Q will be available to answer questions.

Until recently, alternatives for treating post-surgical pain were limited to powerful narcotics, which may cause undesirable side effects – including post-operative nausea and vomiting, grogginess and immunosuppression, and pose the risk of addiction. By reducing the use of narcotics, with a pain pump, patients are more likely to experience better pain management and faster recovery times – patients typically go home an average of 1.1 days sooner than when treated with narcotics alone and hospitals realize additional cost savings.

"For care providers, acute surgical pain management is an increasingly important issue, as the negative effects of powerful narcotics have become further realized," said Chris Barys, General Manager, I-Flow. "The goal of the mobile classroom is to give clinicians the education and resources they need to make the most optimal pain management decisions post-surgery, maintaining the patient's comfort and safety as the top priority."

The bus, which includes conference room-style seating and is outfitted for video and audio presentations, will be stationed at booth #3478 at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) Annual Meeting, March 19-23, 2013 in Chicago, IL.

For details about the On the Road with ON-Q: Post-Operative Pain Education Bus Tour and to see this year's full list of tour stops, please visit www.ON-QBus.com , connect via Facebook: http://www.ON-QBus.com/Facebook or follow the bus on Twitter: www.ON-QBus.com/Twitter.

About I-Flow

I-Flow LLC, a Kimberly-Clark Health Care Company, is a global market leader in acute pain and ambulatory medication delivery, driving innovative clinical applications for surgical procedures and regional anesthesia that improve outcomes and advance patient care. Led by its flagship line, the ON-Q® Pain Relief System (ON-Q) provides reliable and simple non-narcotic, regional anesthesia therapies that are redefining post-surgical recovery by eliminating many of the side effects customarily associated with narcotics. Clinical studies have shown that patients who receive ON-Q products generally get back to normal faster after surgery, resulting in shorter hospital stays, reduced costs and higher patient satisfaction. I-Flow also offers a comprehensive suite of kits and trays for performing peripheral nerve blocks, providing an unmet need and total product solution for I-Flow's clinician customers. Also as part of I-Flow's total solution, the Company offers in-depth training, education, consulting and clinical support along with best-in-class medical device expertise. For more information, visit www.iflo.com. 

SOURCE I-Flow, LLC, a Kimberly-Clark Health Care Company