Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - November 1, 2006, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free press wednesday november 1, 2006 winnipegfreepress.coma3 top news . Wait lists have. Surgeons spend. Patients have less dropped from More time performing pain and a better Between 12 and 18 the actual surgeries Quality of life since months to Between giving them More free time they can get the 12 and six months. Outside of the operating room. Surgery done faster. Cutting the surgery wait time Jen Mike Skerritt Aporius using a new Way of working that is unique in Canada a Winnipeg Hospital has More than doubled the number of hip and knee replacements it can perform. Reporter Jen Skerritt and photographer Mike atorious were allowed to gown up and observe this pioneering method that is slashing wait lists and reducing the time patients Are in pain. I to shortly after 9 . Tuesday and or. David Hedden slams a Metal Hammer into the softball sized Hole in a patients bloody dislocated Man 65 is getting a hip replacement and Hedden wastes no time drilling away chunks of Bone and filing it Down before screwing in the new joint and snapping the Metal and plastic hip socket squarely into place. Minutes later Hedden strips off his gloves and his gown washes his hands and gets suited up to perform a total knee replacement on patient Don Hal lock 51. Clinical assistant Kerry Tennyck takes control of the remaining hip surgery by stitching up the patient cleaning the wound and taking him to recovery ? a Job that up until recently surgeons were responsible for. Concordia Hospital has the Only operating room in the country where clinical assistants Are helping Ort Hope Dic surgeons perform twice As Many hip and knee replacements than 18 months ago. Clinical assistants work with a team consisting of a scrub nurse Anaesthesiologist and two circulating nurses to help alleviate some of the before and after surgery jobs from surgeons like Hedden so they re Able to perform overlapping joint replacements. Each week the surgical team sets aside two Days for double room Surg eries for patients getting their first knee or hip replacement. Surgeries to repair replacement joints occupy the other Days of the week and can to be done on double room Days since they Are More complicated and time con suming. Surgery for a first time patient takes about two hours Start to finish. Joint replacements last about 15 years. While Hedden operates on one patient a clinical assistant is Busy get Ting the next patient positioned draped and sterilized on another operating table. An Anaesthesiologist administers drugs in the next patients spine while a nurse prepares the necessary tools. Hedden just has to move from one operating room to another. All i have to do is put on my gown clinical assistant Kerry Tennyck right in top photo helps surgeon or. David Heddon do hip replacement surgery yesterday at Concordia Hospital. At right hed Don is off to do another replace ment in an adjacent operating room while Tennyck finishes up. And do the surgery Hedden said scrubbing his hands. This makes a huge difference on the productivity on my the new system is saving surgeons from about 45 minutes of prep time and 25 minutes of Post of stitching and closing per patient and has Hospital staff raving about its efficiency. Surgeons Are now performing an average of seven or eight surgeries a Day com pared to the three a Day they were per forming last year. Wait lists have already dropped from Between 12 and 18 months to Between six and 12 months and has Concordia staff hoping the wait could be As Short As three or six months by next year. Most of All Hedden said a Shorter wait Means patients spend less time in pain and have a better outcome after surgery. Orthopaedic surgeon or. Eric Bohm said the idea sprouted after a visit to a clinic in Philadelphia where physician assistants help push More patients through surgery. Vancouver uses a similar Model but has a surgeon and surgeons in training working in the double we were frustrated Only doing three joints a Day Bohm said. 2006 02 9019 november 1, 2006 if this matches your press card number Call 697-7558 to claim a $50 gift certificate to Manitoba liquor marts prize must be claimed within 5 Days of publication. The first clinical assistants were certified by the College of physicians and surgeons Manitoba in 2003 and three now work for Concordia a joint replacement program. All have a med ical background and Are either former military doctors like Tennyck foreign medical graduates like Jose Araneta or physiotherapists and nurses who Complete hands on training for the Job. Bohm said formal training programs for clinical assistants Are set to begin at the University of Manitoba faculty of Medicine in the fall of 2007. They expect to enrol another 12 clinical assistants and help ease the Burden caused by an aging population and a wave of surgeons who Are set to retire in the next few years. We re going to go from three and a half orthopaedic surgeons per 100,000 people to two and a half per 100,000 people Over the next 30 years Bohm said. Even if you double the number of medical training spots we will still face a shortly after 9 ., Hedden slices open Hallock a right knee exposing the Bone cartilage and tissue that had been giving the avid Marathon runner pain for the past two years. He drills a Hole in Hallock a Kneecap sending bits of Bone and blood flying in the operating room and hammers a Rod Down the Centre of his thigh Bone. With the help of Araneta Hedden files the Bone jutting out the Centre of Hallock a Shin and fits him for a pros thetic Kneecap ? before cutting off part of the knee altogether and secur ing a new one in its place. By 10 10 ., Hedden dashes into an adjacent operating room for his third of nine surgeries scheduled for tues Day leaving Araneta to stitch Staple and clean Hallock a leg. As Araneta what a new we re the first Winnipeg is the Only City in Canada with clinical assistants helping physicians with overlapping surgeries. While the orthopaedic surgeon finishes a surgery a clinical assistant prepares the next patient for a surgeon. Filling the Gap clinical Assis Tants can help fill staffing shortages. If the program expands further they May be Able to address shortages caused by surgeons who Are retiring and the Burden of an aging Popula Tion. Expansion in works Concordia Hospital surgical staff Are Dis cussing expanding clinical Assis Tants to other areas of Canada with the Canadian orthopaedic association and the Canadian medical association to help reduce wait times. Helps wheel a groggy Hallock into the recovery area he says he a proud of the work he does and the Impact it has on both patients and physicians. That is satisfaction itself he said. Patients in the Ward appreciate what you re doing. You get a Pat on the Back and it Means a Hallock learns his procedure was part of the new double rooms system from his Hospital bed and is surprised at How it works. This has been a very positive experience he said. They re very efficient and i find them very caring.?. 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