Home News & Views Sponsored Content Access Orthopaedics

Access Orthopaedics

Providing patients with the right care at the right time

People struggling with musculoskeletal injuries and conditions need to get the right care at the right time.

That’s where Access Orthopaedics excels with its unique approach designed to provide a detailed assessment of every patient’s case prior to the creation of their treatment plan.

The team helps improve care by bettering wait times in the public health-care system and making the best of the time patients do spend waiting.

“Access Orthopaedics is a centralized triage and treatment centre for patients with joint and soft tissue problems. It combines multidisciplinary treatment and assessment including musculoskeletal primary care physicians, physical therapy, diagnostic and interventional radiology, physical medicine and rehabilitation, and orthopaedic surgery,” says surgeon, Dr. Ian Lo. “To me, it’s the ideal one-stop shop for patients to be assessed and treated for their musculoskeletal injuries and conditions.”

In addition to serving as a central triage for several shoulder and elbow surgeons, Access offers a spine assessment program providing patients with timely access to comprehensive multidisciplinary care. Numerous clinicians are involved in research which means they are equipped to deliver the latest-and-greatest evidence-informed care.

The initial step at Access sees patients evaluated by a physician and a physiotherapist who have easy access to on- site resources for diagnostics and treatment, including radiology services, an injection suite for those who require image-guided injections for pain management and a physiotherapy clinic. The team includes orthopaedic surgeons, a physiatrist, neurosurgeon, primary care physicians and physiotherapists.

When the solution isn’t surgery – which is often the case – the patient will be linked to the appropriate resources while those requiring a surgical consultation are triaged according to their unique needs and urgency.

Waiting is, of course, never ideal which is why the Access team is committed to providing timely relief to its patients. They do this by empowering them with education, optimizing non-operative management and doing diagnostic testing needed prior to a surgical consult to minimize treatment delays.

That push to customize and coordinate care is the foundation of Access Orthopaedics to ensure Albertans are getting timely and appropriate care, or as the team says, connecting the right patient to the right practitioner at the right time.