lhinkneeLesly-Ann Humphrey welcomes the good news that 70 people like her in the Timmins area with aching hips and knees will see reduced waits for joint replacement thanks to reallocated surgical funding by the North East Local Health Integration Network (NE LHIN).

The NE LHIN has provided Timmins and District Hospital (TADH) with funding for another 39 hip surgeries and 32 knee replacement cases, to be done before April 1, 2016.

Over the past three years, the NE LHIN has provided TADH with close to $3 million to perform hip and knee surgeries. In the same time frame, the NE LHIN has additionally provided the hospital with close to $1 million to do more hip and knee volumes to reduce hip and knee surgical wait times.

Lesly-Ann, 69, light-heartedly says she will soon be “three-quarters’ bionic.” That’s because she had a knee replacement in March 2014, a hip replacement last October, and is now getting ready for the other hip to be replaced.

Prior to her hip surgery, Lesly-Ann says “On a pain scale from 0 to 10, I would have been a 12. After surgery, I had no pain, none.” She’s hoping to have the same result from her next hip surgery.

“Timmins and District Hospital has made great strides to reduce surgical wait times for hip and knees, and we know this only happens with hard work and a relentless commitment to meeting patients’ needs with quality care,” says Louise Paquette, CEO, NE LHIN. “In health care, there is always room for improvement and we applaud the work of Timmins hospital staff and physicians in getting that much closer to meeting provincial wait time targets.”

The NE LHIN will continue to fund the Timmins (and four other) Joint Assessment Centres which have helped to bring down wait times and provide people with more care options for their joint ailments.  After an initial consultation, Advance Practice Physiotherapists, working out of the Centres, help streamline the thousands of Northerners assessed into pathways that expedite access to surgeons. These physiotherapists, like Raphael Delli Quadri at the Timmins Centre, are trained by orthopedic surgeons and work closely with them to ensure the right patients go on to consult with the surgeons.

FACTS:

  • The region’s five Joint Assessment Centres (JACs) been successful in providing more options for care for Northerners, while helping to reduce wait times for hip and knee surgery. Located in Timmins, Sudbury, North Bay, Sault Ste. Marie and Parry Sound, the Centres have completed more than 19,000 assessments on Northerners, finding 65% of patients do not require a surgeon’s consultation as their symptoms can be well managed without surgery. The success of the program has led to an expansion which now includes shoulders.
  • Patients can ask to be referred to a Joint Assessment Centre. In addition to JACs sending referral forms to referring physicians/nurse practitioners, patients can access the referral form on the NE LHIN website (www.nelhin.on.ca) if they wish to bring it to their care provider.
  • Patients are given the opportunity to review surgeons’ wait lists and opt to select the next available surgeon practicing anywhere in the NE LHIN, using a systematic process. The average referral over the last two years was 78% to a specific surgeon, and 22% to the next available surgeon.