Knee clinic back in business
 Acute Knee Injury Clinic provides care 11 times greater than the defined standards of the current system.Calgarians who have hurt their knees once again have a unique ‘made at the U of C’ option for treatment. The University of Calgary Sports Medicine Centre has reopened the Acute Knee Injury Clinic following a highly successful clinical trial.
“If you hurt your knee one of the most important things you can receive is timely, accurate assessment and care,” says Sports Medicine Co-Director Dr. Nick Mohtadi. “Unfortunately, that doesn’t always happen in today’s health-care system.”
To see more patients the clinic introduced a new type of health care practitioner, the Non-Physician Expert (NPE). NPEs are Certified Athletic Therapists who are trained with a detailed curriculum based on the highest standards of medical education. Working as a team with sports medicine physicians, the NPEs enabled the Acute Knee Injury Clinic (AKIC) to see over 300 patients during a pilot project with overwhelmingly positive results.
The clinic resulted in improved access to appropriate care, higher patient satisfaction and lower costs. The AKIC also met the defined standards of care 11 times greater than the current system.
“There are several unique elements about this clinic,” explains Mohtadi. “First of all, you don’t need a family physician referral. If you injure your knee playing soccer, hockey or carrying groceries to the car, all you have to do is go online, book an appointment and in a matter of days you should be able to come in for an assessment and begin receiving treatment for your injured knee. There’s no way people should be suffering and risking more permanent injury by waiting so long.”
The clinic utilizes state of the art online check-in, screening and triage technology to allow direct and improved access for knee injured patients on a non-referral basis. For further information or to make an appointment with the AKIC, please visit www.sportmed.ucalgary.ca/akic to complete the online questionnaires.
Online questionnaires must be completed before an appointment can be made. A referral for appointments is not required.
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August 3, 2010