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This healthcare service has 1 current healthcare service locations.
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Emergency Information 
Rural Respiratory Therapy Central Access and Triage (CAT)   at
Calgary Zone and Area
Central Access Healthcare Service
Connect Care Department: CGY ZONE RURAL RESP THRPY CAT
Estimated time to routine appointment: Within 1 month
Alberta Health Services - Calgary Zone
CENTRAL ACCESS SERVICES
This central access referral service provides a single point of entry for rural respiratory therapy services in the Calgary Zone.
This central access referral service provides a single point of entry for rural respiratory therapy services in the Calgary Zone.
ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS
Inclusion criteria:
  • 16 years and older.
  • Valid Alberta Personal health Care number (AB-PHN).
    • Non-Alberta residents who are covered through another Canadian provincial health insurance plan may be eligible for service (Patients should check with their provincial Health plan to see if services are covered).
Exclusion criteria:
For Spirometry:
  • inability to follow directions (e.g. Dementia).
  • Ruptured Ear Drum
  • Postoperative contra-indications and recommended wait:
    • Abdominal Laparotomy: 4 weeks
    • Abdominal C-section: 6-8 weeks
    • Eye surgery Cataract: 2-3 months
    • Eye surgery LASIK / Laser: 1 month
    • Thoracic Surgery: 4 weeks
    • Ear / ENT surgery: until healing is complete
    • Brain Surgery: 6 weeks
    • Vascular Surgery: 4-6 weeks
  • Respiratory Disorders and recommended wait:
    • Acute Pulmonary embolus: pt is stable, being treated with anticoagulants and at least one week post event
    • Pneumothorax: 2-3 weeks post treatment
    • Acute Haemoptysis
  • Cardiac and Cardiovascular disorders:
    • Aneurysm
    • Myocardial Infarction: minimum 1 week
    • Acute Hypertension: patient is stable and on Antihypertensive treatment with mean arterial pressure is <130 mmHg.
    • Angina
Inclusion criteria:
  • 16 years and older.
  • Valid Alberta Personal health Care number (AB-PHN).
    • Non-Alberta residents who are covered through another Canadian provincial health insurance plan may be eligible for service (Patients should check with their provincial Health plan to see if services are covered).
Exclusion criteria:
For Spirometry:
  • inability to follow directions (e.g. Dementia).
  • Ruptured Ear Drum
  • Postoperative contra-indications and recommended wait:
    • Abdominal Laparotomy: 4 weeks
    • Abdominal C-section: 6-8 weeks
    • Eye surgery Cataract: 2-3 months
    • Eye surgery LASIK / Laser: 1 month
    • Thoracic Surgery: 4 weeks
    • Ear / ENT surgery: until healing is complete
    • Brain Surgery: 6 weeks
    • Vascular Surgery: 4-6 weeks
  • Respiratory Disorders and recommended wait:
    • Acute Pulmonary embolus: pt is stable, being treated with anticoagulants and at least one week post event
    • Pneumothorax: 2-3 weeks post treatment
    • Acute Haemoptysis
  • Cardiac and Cardiovascular disorders:
    • Aneurysm
    • Myocardial Infarction: minimum 1 week
    • Acute Hypertension: patient is stable and on Antihypertensive treatment with mean arterial pressure is <130 mmHg.
    • Angina
Referral instructions for primary care, community care, private
providers etc. who do not send referrals via Connect Care.
REFERRAL PROCESS - FOR NON-CONNECT CARE USERS
A referral from a physician or nurse practitioner is required for Spirometry and Arterial Blood Gas assessments.
Complete the referral form and fax it to the service using the contact information in this profile.
There is no urgent referral process, patients are triaged based on need. If you feel your patient needs to be seen more urgently, please mark urgent on the referral and call to discuss with the Respiratory Therapist.
A referral from a physician or nurse practitioner is required for Spirometry and Arterial Blood Gas assessments.
Complete the referral form and fax it to the service using the contact information in this profile.
There is no urgent referral process, patients are triaged based on need. If you feel your patient needs to be seen more urgently, please mark urgent on the referral and call to discuss with the Respiratory Therapist.
REFERRAL PROCESS - FOR CONNECT CARE USERS
Send an Internal Referral using the Ambulatory Referral Order to Respiratory Therapy, type CGY ZONE RURAL RESP THRPY CAT in the “To Department” section and complete order.
Send an Internal Referral using the Ambulatory Referral Order to Respiratory Therapy, type CGY ZONE RURAL RESP THRPY CAT in the “To Department” section and complete order.
REFERRAL PROCESS - FOR SELF-REFERRAL
Patients looking for education on COPD, Asthma or smoking cessation can self-refer by calling the service directly.
Patients looking for education on COPD, Asthma or smoking cessation can self-refer by calling the service directly.
COMMUNICATION PROCESS
  • Referral receipt to referring source within 7 days.
  • Acceptance via appointment details or wait list status letter to referring source and patient within 14 days.
  • Appointment outcome to referral source within 30 days.
ADDITIONAL SERVICE DETAILS
The Respiratory outpatient clinic provides the following services:
  • diagnostic testing (simple spirometry with Respirologist interpretation, arterial blood gases, obstructive sleep apnea screening).
  • support of rural community patients in home for patients unable to attend clinic (referral usually facilitated through Integrated Home Services or Transition Services).
  • offer education for patients and family members on:
    • Asthma
    • COPD
    • action plans related to asthma or COPD
    • other respiratory conditions (e.g.: cough, shortness of breath, ILD)
    • smoking reduction (e.g.: tobacco, vaping)
    • home oxygen qualifications as per AADL
    • respiratory medication, inhaler techniques
  • Smoking Cessation group classes are offered periodically throughout the year in High River and Okotoks

    For exercise classes, please refer to Alberta Healthy Living Program ABHL
The Respiratory outpatient clinic provides the following services:
  • diagnostic testing (simple spirometry with Respirologist interpretation, arterial blood gases, obstructive sleep apnea screening).
  • support of rural community patients in home for patients unable to attend clinic (referral usually facilitated through Integrated Home Services or Transition Services).
  • offer education for patients and family members on:
    • Asthma
    • COPD
    • action plans related to asthma or COPD
    • other respiratory conditions (e.g.: cough, shortness of breath, ILD)
    • smoking reduction (e.g.: tobacco, vaping)
    • home oxygen qualifications as per AADL
    • respiratory medication, inhaler techniques
  • Smoking Cessation group classes are offered periodically throughout the year in High River and Okotoks

    For exercise classes, please refer to Alberta Healthy Living Program ABHL
 
CENTRAL ACCESS REFERRAL PHONE
403-652-0115
CENTRAL ACCESS REFERRAL FAX
403-652-0122
REFERRAL FORMS
CENTRAL ACCESS LINKED SERVICES
LINKED SPECIALISTS
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
+-
Arterial blood gases
  • Past medical history
  • Lung Function Test results (if any)
 
Within 12 months
Medication List
 
Current
Relevant investigations (if any)
 
Within 6 months
A referral from a physician or nurse practitioner is required.
Service is available at the following locations:
  • Claresholm
  • High River
  • Okotoks
  • Strathmore
+-
Education
  • Past medical history
  • Lung Function Test results (if any)
 
Within 12 months
Medication List
 
Current
Relevant investigations (if any)
 
Within 6 months
Patients can self-refer by calling the office.
See Additional Service Details section for education topics offered.
+-
Spirometry
  • Past medical history
  • Lung Function Test results (if any)
 
Within 12 months
Medication List
 
Current
Relevant investigations (if any)
 
Within 6 months
Review the exclusion criteria under Eligibility Requirements section for this reason for referral.
A referral from a physician or nurse practitioner is required.


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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