Anyone requiring knee or hip replacement in Chatham-Kent will see wait times for surgery cut significantly.
Beginning April 1, patients who need replacements will be referred to one of the newly developed Musculoskeletal Rapid Assessment Clinics (MSK RAC) by their physician, according to the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance (CKHA) board. Lisa Northcott, vice president of the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance (CKHA), said it is currently taking months for patients to meet with the surgeon after being referred by their family doctors and then months more for the procedure.
Northcott said the new system should alleviate the wait.
"Their primary caregiver will send a referral to the RAC which is a central intake through the LHIN," Northcott said. "That patient will receive an appointment in two weeks and will be seen by a physiotherapist who has extra training in how to assess patients with osteoarthritis. Those physiotherapists have actually spent the last three months training with our orthopedic surgeons learning how to assess patients complaining about pain in their hip or knee."
Northcott added once the assessment is completed the patients will get an individualized care plan which may not even require surgery. She said it could end up being a plan to have the patient enter an exercise program, physiotherapy, or pool and aquafit therapy.
She said 40 per cent of patients being assessed by orthopedic surgeons didn't need a hip or knee replacement.
"We are hoping that by seeing these patients in the RAC and identifying the ones early that don't need surgery that we can reduce wait times for those that do need a hip or knee replacement," Northcott said.
Another great thing about the Rapid Assesment Clinics, according to Northcott, is that if the patients needs surgery they will be able to choose the doctor with the shortest waitlist across the LHIN.
CKHA CEO Lori Marshall presented statistics and while the hospital was solid at hip replacements with 81 per cent of patients getting the procedure within the recommended wait time it was only at 56 per cent for knee replacements. She added CKHA is projected to perform 234 hip and 485 knee replacement procedures this year.