PEMBROKE – Just four months in, Orthopaedic surgeons at the Pembroke Regional Hospital are taking regional trauma referrals and providing elective surgery patients with top-notch care close to home.
Orthopaedics involves the inpatient and outpatient treatment of injuries and conditions affecting the musculoskeletal system. Repairing broken bones and replacing hip and knee joints, for example, are part of orthopedic services.
“Last month PRH was added to the CritiCall Ontario list, making our hospital a 24/7 referral site within the region for orthopaedic trauma,” said Francois Lemaire, Vice-President of Patient Services – Acute Care and Chief Nursing Executive.
“Being part of this provincial system acknowledges us as a full service orthopaedic site and says a lot not only about our new program but about our emergency department as well,” Mr. Lemaire said.
Funded by the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, CritiCall Ontario is a 24-hour-a-day emergency consultation and referral service for physicians across the province with the goal of helping to ensure Ontario patients can access the urgent and emergent care they need as close to home as possible.
With trauma cases needing significantly more in terms of available equipment, Mr. Lemaire said it took about six weeks from the early January launch of the Orthopaedics program to not only get the required equipment in place for trauma cases, but also to ensure the completion of staff training for those in the Surgical unit and Operating rooms.
“Trauma response in our own Emergency Department began February 21st and we allowed ourselves some time after that to ensure things ran smoothly and that we had an adequate supply of equipment before going on the regional call list,” Mr. Lemaire said.
In the meantime, referrals for elective orthopaedic surgeries have been steady and the surgeons have also been running an orthopaedic clinic for such services as casts and x-rays.
In a recent presentation to the Hospital’s Board of Directors, Mr. Lemaire reported that in the program’s first three months, its three surgeons, Dr. Chris de Jesus, Dr. Natasha Holder and Dr. Ingrid Radovanovic, have dealt with five hip fractures, 34 knee replacements, 10 hip replacements, 29 knee arthroscopies, and 28 other procedures which include trauma.
The hospital is funded for an annual caseload of 46 hip fractures, 200 knee replacements, 80 hip replacements, 174 knee arthroscopies and 334 other surgeries so things are well on track.
Referrals for hip and knee replacements are made through a central intake system through which every patient requiring orthopaedic surgery is assessed. Cases are then distributed to hospital sites bases on the service that is closest to home.
“We are very proud of the service that we are able to provide through this new program and I know that our patients are appreciative to have it available in their own backyard,” Mr. Lemaire said, adding that not only do our surgeons bring to the community a broad base of orthopaedic expertise but they also each have their own areas of specialty including including sports injuries (Dr. de Jesus), shoulder injuries (Dr. Holder) and foot and ankle injuries (Dr. Radovanovic).
Mr. Lemaire also noted that, while the majority of orthopaedic surgeries are now being done in this community, there are a few specialties that will continue to be referred to Ottawa – those cases involving paediatric patients, spine injuries or multi-system trauma.
