Thursday, March 27, 2014
New Orthopaedic Program In Development Phase At Pembroke Regional Hospital
PEMBROKE – Last summer, a regional plan for orthopaedic services which includes the creation of a full service orthopaedic surgical program at the Pembroke Regional Hospital, was approved by the Board of the Champlain Local Health Integration Network (LHIN).
With that approval in place, PRH established a working group led by Francois Lemaire, Vice-President of Patient Services – Acute Care and Chief Nursing Executive (CNE), to take on the task of developing the program and completing a whole host of behind-the-scenes tasks required to launch this program in a phased approach over a two to three-year period.
“To date, development of a business plan for the program is complete and our working group has been involved in reviewing that plan and looking more in depth at equipment and resource requirements,” said Mr. Lemaire.
“Even though we have the approvals, there is much work still to be done and we have been working closely with the LHIN to ensure that we will be able to provide a quality-based program that is designed using best practice standards of care, and will best meet the needs of our patients in a setting much closer to home,” he said.
Currently, all PRH patients requiring emergency orthopaedic surgery are transferred to one of several hospitals in Ottawa; Queensway-Carleton, The Ottawa Hospital, or the Montfort. The transfer process for urgent cases is managed through Criticall Ontario, a 24-hour emergency consultation and referral service for Ontario physicians which is funded by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care and links hospitals and medical resources throughout the province.
Minor orthopaedic cases that are appropriate for follow-up either with a family physician or by non-urgent referral to an orthopaedic physician in Ottawa are managed by PRH.
But other than the surgical component itself, the Pembroke Regional Hospital has almost all the pieces in place required to operate and administer a regional orthopaedic surgery program.
“We have an excellent rehabilitation program, for inpatients and outpatients,” said Mr. Lemaire. “For those needing hip or knee replacements, there is a satellite Total Joint Assessment Clinic, as well as a pre-habilitation program and a post-operative outpatient rehabilitation program for hip/knee replacements whose surgery is performed in Ottawa,” he said.
Also vital to bringing this program to PRH is the purchase and installation of an MRI which is on track for late fall of this year.
While the startup date for the Pembroke Regional Hospital’s orthopaedic program has not yet been established, the planned outcome of the phase-in period will be a 24/7 program supported by three orthopaedic surgeons that covers emergency and critical care cases, hip, foot, ankle and upper limb fractures, as well as knee and hip replacements.
PRH President and CEO Pierre Noel said the LHIN has identified our program as being a high priority, especially given a projected 22% increase in demand for orthopaedic procedures over the next 10 years and the fact that, in 2009-2010 alone, patients from our catchment area received, on average, 45.3 hours per week of orthopaedic surgical services at various hospitals across the Champlain LHIN.
“Orthopaedics may be a program that has high demand on resources both in terms of equipment and OR time, but it is an essential one to be able to offer the residents in the western portion of the Champlain LHIN,” Mr. Noel said. He added that, given the Champlain LHIN has higher wait times for orthopaedic surgeries, the establishment of a regional program at PRH will serve to assist in improving service by lowering the wait.
While he recognizes that patients currently awaiting orthopaedic procedures are hoping to be some of the first completed at PRH, Mr. Noel said it is too early to tell when local bookings will be taking place.
“All appointments are scheduled based on physician referral to a central intake system, and this will be the same method by which appointments are booked when our program is up and running, so while not all of our regional cases will be taken locally at first, we are excited and look forward to the time when we will be operating at full capacity and will be able to provide all our patients such an important service closer to home.”
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Carolyn Levesque, Public Affairs and Communications Coordinator
(613) 732-3675, ext. 6165 / carolyn.levesque@pemreghos.org
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