Regional Hip and Knee Replacement Program

FAQ

Champlain LHIN Orthopaedic Surgeon Specialty List

Frequently Asked Questions
Overview
The Regional Hip and Knee Replacement Program will lead to the following changes in the referring physician’s current referral process:

a standard referral form, entitled Request for Primary Hip and Knee Replacement Consultation, will be used for all hip and knee replacement surgery referrals for the Champlain LHIN, beginning January 4, 2010

Referrals will be faxed to the Regional Central Intake Centre (613-721-7889) for review and triage, instead of directly being faxed to the surgeons’ offices

Surgeons who receive forms directly will send them to the Regional Central Intake Centre

The main benefits of the Regional Hip and Knee Replacement Program Central Intake Office for Referring Physicians include:

Fast referral response times

Comprehensive feedback regarding patient assessments

Suggested next steps

Improved access to care

Reduced wait times for patients

Why should I use the new form?
The standard Request for Primary Hip and Knee Replacement Consultation will help the Regional Central Intake Office process the referral faster, which in turn, will lead to quicker access to an Assessment Centre and surgeon consult for your patient. A complete referral form also reduces the likelihood of delays due to follow-up with your office, and ensures that your referral is triaged based on a complete summary of information.

What constitutes a complete Request for Primary Hip and Knee Replacement Consultation?
We strongly encourage you to complete all fields on the form and provide additional information where appropriate ie. attach recent diagnostic imaging reports, medication list, cumulative patient profile. If the request for consultation is not completed, your office will be called and the referral faxed back for completion. This will result in delays for your patient.

What happens at the Regional Central Intake Centre?
The Request for Consultation is screened for completeness by administrative staff and a patient record is created in the wait times tracking system. The referral is then handed off to an assessor for an appropriateness review.

What is an Appropriateness Review?
An appropriateness review determines the patient’s appropriateness for a physical screening at an Assessment Centre. The patient must be a potential candidate for a primary hip or knee replacement. Once the patient is deemed appropriate for an Assessment Centre visit, the referral will be faxed to the centre of patient choice located at Cornwall Community Hospital, Hopital Montfort, Queensway Carleton Hospital or the Ottawa Hospital. If no assessment centre is requested on the referral, the patient will be sent to the first available hospital/surgeon.

What happens if the patient is not deemed appropriate for an Assessment Centre visit?
If the patient is not deemed appropriate for an Assessment Centre, a letter will be sent to the referring physician with an explanation for the decision. An inappropriate consultation would include referrals for shoulder, foot, or back problems.

What happens at the Assessment Centre?
During the Assessment Centre visit, the patient will benefit from a visit that will last approximately one hour. The assessment will be completed by an orthopaedic trained assessor and will focus on clinical, functional and radiological findings. The patient will receive information about potential treatment options.

An assessor is specially trained by the orthopaedic surgeon to conduct a comprehensive physical assessment to confirm the need for surgeon consult. The goal is to ensure that each patient is assessed promptly after referral, managed proactively and triaged to a surgeon based on urgency and appointment availability.

The role of the assessor is intended to reduce the time spent by orthopaedic surgeons seeing new patients who are not surgical candidates and to develop timely non-surgical treatment plans for these patients. Assessors also play a key role in patient education.

Patients who are deemed to be surgical candidates and who wish to have hip or knee replacement surgery are brought back to the assessment centre to meet with a surgeon of their choice or the first available surgeon.

Will I still have the ability to refer my patient to the surgeon of my or my patient’s choice? Yes, on the Request for Primary Hip and Knee Replacement Consultation, under the box entitled “Consultation Requested From” you have the ability to indicate your or your patient’s preference for one of the following:

The first available consult with a non-specified surgeon or hospital

A specific hospital

A specific surgeon; and

Services in a specific language (English or French)

If nothing is completed, the patient will be scheduled with the first available surgeon at any of the participating hospitals.