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Emergency Information 
Neurosurgery Centralized Access - Facilitated Access to Specialized Treatment (FAST)   at
Calgary Zone and Area
Central Access Healthcare Service
Specialty: Neurosurgery
Estimated time to routine appointment: Not Available
Alberta Health Services - Calgary Zone
CENTRAL ACCESS SERVICES
Referrals for Neurosurgery in the Calgary Zone are accepted through the Facilitated Access to Specialized Treatment (FAST) centralized access program. The program improves patient access to specialty care by centralizing referral intake, ensuring referrals are complete, and distributing referrals to specialists. Referring providers can choose a next-available surgeon with the shortest waitlist; a specific surgeon, clinic, or site; or an out-of-zone provider.
Referrals for Neurosurgery in the Calgary Zone are accepted through the Facilitated Access to Specialized Treatment (FAST) centralized access program. The program improves patient access to specialty care by centralizing referral intake, ensuring referrals are complete, and distributing referrals to specialists. Referring providers can choose a next-available surgeon with the shortest waitlist; a specific surgeon, clinic, or site; or an out-of-zone provider.
ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS
Review reasons for referral table below for eligibility requirements.
Review reasons for referral table below for eligibility requirements.
ROUTINE REFERRAL PROCESS
Submit referral by fax:
1. Complete the referral form or a referral letter stating the referral reason.
2. Attach mandatory information listed in the Neurosurgery Adult Referral Pathway.
3. Fax completed referral to Calgary Zone FAST at 1-833-627-7023.
OR
Submit referral via Alberta Netcare eReferral – see Quick Reference Guide for details.
OR
Use an Outgoing Referral in Connect Care.
Change the referral class to “Outgoing Referral” on the Ambulatory Order and complete order.
Outgoing orders are not sent electronically and require processing in work queue 5.
Submit referral by fax:
1. Complete the referral form or a referral letter stating the referral reason.
2. Attach mandatory information listed in the Neurosurgery Adult Referral Pathway.
3. Fax completed referral to Calgary Zone FAST at 1-833-627-7023.
OR
Submit referral via Alberta Netcare eReferral – see Quick Reference Guide for details.
OR
Use an Outgoing Referral in Connect Care.
Change the referral class to “Outgoing Referral” on the Ambulatory Order and complete order.
Outgoing orders are not sent electronically and require processing in work queue 5.
URGENT REFERRAL PROCESS
Patient may need same day intervention and/or diagnostics without
hospitalization; not life threatening.
Call RAAPID South: 1-800-661-1700.
Patient may need same day intervention and/or diagnostics without
hospitalization; not life threatening.
Call RAAPID South: 1-800-661-1700.
EMERGENCY REFERRAL PROCESS
Patient needs to be seen immediately.
For example: evolving neurological deficit or altered level of consciousness.
Call RAAPID or send to Emergency Department via 911 as appropriate.
If stroke symptoms are evolving, call local stroke service via RAAPID
Patient needs to be seen immediately.
For example: evolving neurological deficit or altered level of consciousness.
Call RAAPID or send to Emergency Department via 911 as appropriate.
If stroke symptoms are evolving, call local stroke service via RAAPID
COMMUNICATION PROCESS
  • Referral receipt to referring source within 7 days.
ADDITIONAL SERVICE DETAILS
Learn more about FAST at ahs.ca/FAST.
For Spine reasons for referral: At this time referring providers are advised to send referrals directly to the spine clinic/surgeon of their choice as they did prior to FAST.
Learn more about FAST at ahs.ca/FAST.
For Spine reasons for referral: At this time referring providers are advised to send referrals directly to the spine clinic/surgeon of their choice as they did prior to FAST.
 
CENTRAL ACCESS REFERRAL PHONE
1-833-553-3278 ext 4
CENTRAL ACCESS REFERRAL FAX
1-833-627-7023
REFERRAL FORMS
PATHWAYS
CLICK + TO VIEW REFERRAL GUIDELINES
+-
Routine Reason for Referral
Access Targets convey the clinically appropriate timeframe patients should be seen within, by reason for referral and priority level.
Access Target
Required Information/Investigations
Investigation Timing
Additional Details
+-
Carpal tunnel syndrome
Include within the referral letter (Refer to clinical pathway for additional support): - Description of symptom onset and duration - Specify if atrophy or weakness present, as this impacts triage. - Functional status limitations - Treatments initiated and responses
 
N/A
  • Refer to Clinical Pathway: Carpal Tunnel
  • Send Referral to Calgary zone FAST Team.
  • Electrodiagnostic studies should be ordered concurrently ifatrophy/weakness present(i.e. severe carpal tunnel syndrome).
+-
Cerebrovascular disease
Any available imaging
 
N/A
CEREBROVASCULAR
• Includes: Aneurysms, AVM, Carotid Stenosis, Cavernoma.

Send referral to Calgary Zone FAST Team
Further imaging may be ordered by specialist if necessary.
+-
Consultation by neurosurgery service
Any available imaging
 
N/A
CONSULT FOR NEUROSURGERY
Send referral to Calgary Zone FAST Team.
Further imaging may be ordered by specialist if necessary.
+-
Cranial bone neoplasm
Any available imaging
 
N/A
Send referral to Calgary Zone FAST Team.
Further imaging may be ordered by specialist if necessary
+-
Hydrocephalus
Any available imaging
 
N/A
Send referral to Calgary Zone FAST Team.
Further imaging may be ordered by specialist if necessary.
+-
Intracranial neoplasm
Any available imaging
 
N/A
INTRACRANIAL NEOPLASM
Includes: Benign and Malignant Metastatic Tumors.

Send referral to Calgary Zone FAST Team.
Further imaging may be ordered by specialist if necessary
+-
Median nerve entrapment
Electrodiagnostic study results required as results impact triage decisions.
 
< 12 months of referral
Please specify if wasting and weakness are present.
 
< 12 months of referral
MEDIAN NERVE ENTRAPMENT
  • Other than carpal tunnel syndrome
  • Includes: pronator Syndrome, lacertus syndrome
Send referral to Calgary Zone FAST Team.
+-
Radial nerve entrapment
Electrodiagnostic study results required as results impact triage decisions.
 
< 12 months of referral
Please specify if wasting and weakness are present.
 
< 12 months of referral
RADIAL NERVE ENTRAPMENT
• Includes: radial tunnel, PIN compression, wartenberg’s syndrome
Send referral to Calgary Zone FAST Team.
+-
Ulnar nerve entrapment
Electrodiagnostic study results required as results impact triage decisions.
 
< 12 months of referral
Please specify if wasting and weakness are present
 
< 12 months of referral
If loss of motion at the elbow, please provide x-ray of the affected elbow completed within 12 months
 
< 12 months of referral
ULNAR NERVE ENTRAPMENT
Includes: Cubital Tunnel, Guyon’s Syndrome
Send referral to Calgary Zone FAST Team


The primary purpose of the All Locations list is to let the user easily access any location of a healthcare service without going back to the main search screen.

The locations listed have 3 background colors:
  • Green means the healthcare service@location has referral information attached to it.
  • Brown means the healthcare service@location never had referral information attached to it, or it has unpublished referral information.
  • Red means
    • IA changed the healthcare service@location's status to something other than Current
    • It was deleted if it is an ARD healthcare service@location.
Green  and Brown are always at the top of the list. These are the Healthcare Service@Locations with the status of Current.
The Red list at the bottom consists of non-current Healthcare Service@locations that once had Published referral information in the ARD.
If the referral information was never published in ARD the Healthcare Service@location will not show in the Red list.

The secondary purpose of the All Locations list is to allow ARD Administrators to recover (copy) referral information from the non-current Healthcare Service@Locations to ones that are current.

Common Scenario:
A Healthcare Service moves from one location to another. In this case the IA Healthcare Service@Location record will be made defunct (non-current) and a new Healthcare Service@Location record will be created with a current status. In this scenario the captured referral guidelines in ARD can become "orphaned" as they are not attached to any current IA healthcare service.

Categories of non-current or orphaned referral guidelines: INDIVIDUAL and COMMON.
The REFERRAL GUIDELINES section of the profile has the prefix INDIVIDUAL or COMMON to help you choose the method below when transferring referral guidelines from a non-current Healthcare Service@Location to a current healthcare service@location.

Individual referral process
  1. Click on a non-current (Red) Healthcare Service@Location at the bottom of the All Locations list.
  2. The non-current referral info is displayed with the link Copy this Referral Process to another Healthcare Service@Location link on the upper right hand corner. Click on the copy link.
  3. Choose a current location (Green or Brown) from the All Locations list. This will be the Healthcare Service@Location you are pasting the referral info into.
  4. The system will display the Edit Referral Info screen populated with the referral info from the non-current Healthcare Service@Location you viewed in the first step.
  5. Click Save and the referral info is transferred from the non-current Healthcare Service@Location to the current one.
  6. Repeat these steps for each Healthcare Service@Location that needs attention.

Common referral process - 2 sub cases.
Case 1: At least 1 current Healthcare Service@Location with common referral info is with current status for this healthcare service; One or more Healthcare Healthcare Service@Locations where replaced by new one.
  1. Click on any current Healthcare Service@Location whether it has referral info (Green) or not (Brown).
  2. The healthcare service location opens in the Edit Referral Info screen populated with the current common referral info.
  3. Save it. 
  4. All locations will be updated with the common referral information, including all the locations that don't have referral info yet (Brown). The non-current referrals (Red) will also be updated.
Case 2:  All Healthcare Healthcare Service@Locations for a healthcare service are set to a non-current status and replaced by new ones. In this case there is no current additional referral info to copy from, so the only alternative is to pick up the non-current common referral process (Red). Follow the steps described in the section Individual Referral Process above to copy/paste the non-current common referral info to the current healthcare service locations.
Generally we want to replicate current common referral info to new or replaced healthcare service locations. We only resort to copying non-current common referral info if there is no other option.

Remember: Some fields can be location specific with the common referral process:
Parking Instructions, Directions, Parking Map, Wait Time, Referral Phone or Referral Fax.
To update these items you have to edit each Healthcare Service@Location separately.

ADDITONAL NOTES:
  • The info icon after the All Locations drop down will be visible to ARD Administrators.
  • The system doesn't allow you to copy referral information from one non-current Healthcare Service@Location to another.

 

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