February 1, 2007

PETERBOROUGH – The Peterborough Regional Health Centre is a provincial leader in reducing wait times in the five key priority areas (hip and knee total joint replacement, cardiac procedures, cancer surgery, MRI/CT exams and cataract surgery).

To date, the government has invested almost $4.8 million since the start of the Wait Time Strategy to provide over 2,524 procedures to the Peterborough Regional Health Centre.

The hospital has seen especially significant reductions in wait times for hip and knee total joint replacements, including :

• a decline in wait times of 41 per cent for hip replacements (since August-September 2005), the largest drop in the Central East Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) area
• a decline in wait times of 28 per cent for knee replacements (since August/September 2005), the largest drop in the Central East LHIN area.

The Peterborough Regional Health Centre has introduced a number of innovations and efficiencies pre-operation and during the procedure which have contributed to these outstanding results.

The hospital has joined with the Peterborough Community Care Access Centre to develop a pre-operation program. Under this program, a case manager completes an intake assessment and a therapist visits to do a home assessment. Patients also receive extensive education on their upcoming procedure through classroom sessions and one-on-one sessions with a nurse in the preoperative clinic.

The hospital follows best practice when the patient is given an anesthesia. The use of regional/nerve blocks decreases the use of narcotics, which results in fewer complications, and allows the patient to become mobile more quickly and be discharged from hospital sooner. The length of stay at the hospital is among the lowest in the province with an average of 4.1 days for knee replacements and 5.1 days for hip replacements.

The hospital has maximized efficiencies by using standardized knees, hips and intraocular lenses. All instrument trays are also standardized.

The hospital has been accommodating the increased numbers of hip and knee total joint replacements by :

• Relocating some ear, nose and throat cases and general surgery cases to the Rogers Street site
• Scheduling some hip and knee joint replacements on weekends and during holidays and slowdowns.

For further information :

Members of the general public :
1-866-532-3161

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