January 2023 Meeting Highlights

Dr. Greg Hirsch, Senior Medical Director, Perioperative (Surgical) Services Network introduced some new members to the network, including:

• Ursula Kroll, Change Management Consultant from Pivot Consulting
• Karen Doherty, Clinical Project Consultant, Perioperative Services Network
• Matthew Clarke, Interim Chief Medical Information Officer

Network members discussed the new variant of Omicron being linked to an increase in health care provider absenteeism.

Nova Scotians are encouraged to have a box of rapid tests on hand in the event they are experiencing symptoms of COVID-19. Effective January 26, 2023, people who schedule a PCR test appointment can choose to take up to two boxes of rapid tests per PCR appointment to further support household members with symptomatic testing. People with a rapid test pick-up appointment can also choose to take up to two boxes of tests to support symptomatic testing.

Community rapid testing partners (libraries, MLA offices, Feed NS, Access NS) will also be offering two boxes per pick-up. Questions about community rapid testing can be directed to the Public Health Mobile Unit at communityCOVIDtesting@nshealth.ca  

Network members discussed progress being made on our multi-year Surgical Access and Quality Improvement Strategy. This included zone updates on efforts to increase capacity to allow more surgeries to take place.

We are tracking our volumes and operating room (OR) hours compared to our baseline of 2019/20, as well as other indicators related to strategy initiatives. Complete data for the month of December showed:

• surgical volumes provincially were at 113% of December 2019/20 volumes.
• operating room hours provincially were at 106% of December 2019/20 hours.

To prepare for the successful launch of Nova Scotia’s new surgical referral model in March 2023, Nova Scotia Health is onboarding primary care practices and surgeon offices to the eReferral tool that will support this model. 

Going forward, we will require all referrals to Nova Scotia Health and IWK Health surgeons to flow through this single-entry intake model and other providers (i.e. Emergency Department physicians, Internal Medicine Specialists etc.) will be onboarded at a later time.

Surgeons must be set up on Ocean to be included and receive

eReferrals through the Ocean provider directory (Healthmap)

Primary care providers will only be able to submit

eReferrals if they are set up to use this tool.       

Please take the necessary steps to onboard to Ocean now. Our deployment team is here to support you throughout this process. To begin, simply complete the brief form below that applies. This will identify your clinic / office contact who we can work with to help set up your Ocean account.  

• Surgeon form
• Primary Care form                     

Learn more about the single-entry surgical intake

project here - PROJECT UPDATE #3.

Dr. Hirsch spoke to planning underway related to Centralized Surgical Booking. Such models are now being used to help coordinate access to surgical care at some Nova Scotia Health hospitals. Efforts are underway to expand these models to support timely, equitable access to surgical and endoscopic services, while optimizing the use of surgical resources.

Planning is being led in each zone with the intent to have site-based booking clerks collaborating with surgeons’ offices to create the list of patients to be scheduled into their assigned operating room (OR) time (OR blocks).

Like the Single-Entry Surgical Intake Model that will support surgical referrals, Centralized Booking is a priority within government's Action for Health Plan and Nova Scotia Health's Surgical Access and Quality Improvement Strategy. The need for such models has been flagged in accreditation reports and in a 2014 Auditor General report on surgical access.

Surgeons and other team members are encouraged to engage in local planning conversations to learn more and contribute to the success and effectiveness of these models.

Having an adequate supply of skilled perioperative nurses and other care providers is vital to our province’s strategy to improve access and support more timely surgical care.

The Nova Scotia Health Learning Institute for Health Care Providers offers the Perioperative Nursing Program (PONP) that provides registered nurses (RNs) with the advanced education and training needed to work in operating rooms (ORs).

During the COVID-19 pandemic in-person programs were restricted which resulted in delays to some programs like the PONP.

Since then, the perioperative network and zone perioperative leaders at Nova Scotia Health have worked with the Institute to identify ways to increase access to programs and offer more flexible enrollment and completion options. Learn more HERE.

Perioperative (Surgical) Services has worked with IMIT Clinical Specialty Services, Quality and Decision Support and surgeons to create consistent and standardized surgical booking codes for the most common Otolaryngology procedures.

Our new Nova Scotia Coding Access Targets for Surgery (NSCATS) Otolaryngology Prioritization Codes went live on November 29. They involve 23 new codes for use in the Eastern, Western and Northern zones and relate to 10 Otolaryngology procedures / diagnoses. 

You can view instructions on the use of these and other NSCATS codes HERE.

You can find out about new and recently updated pamphlets, including Perioperative Services patient education resources on their Library Services blog (Note: Once on the blog page you can subscribe to monthly updates)

Patient Education Pamphlets updated or created in December 2022

Dr. Greg Hirsch, Senior Medical Director, Perioperative Services Network (co-chair)

Cindy Connolly, Director, Clinical Networks, Perioperative Services Network (co-chair)

Liam Shannon, Manager, Planning and Development, Perioperative Network

Stephanie Mailman-Crouse, Quality Improvement and Safety Advisor

Sara Bates, Senior Analyst, Policy and Planning, Perioperative Services Network

Karen Doherty, Clinical Project Consultant

Sandra Kline, Admin. Assistant, Perioperative Services Network and NSQIP

Debbie Dolliver, Admin. Assistant, Surgical Quality and Access Improvement Strategy

Krista Wood, Senior Communications Advisor, Perioperative Services Network

Visit our Perioperative (Surgical) Services page within the resources section of the Nova Scotia Health intranet for past highlights, newsletters and more.

View Perioperative Services content (under development) on the new Medical Affairs Physician Information and Wellness Portal 

Sign up to receive updates on our Single-Entry Surgical Referral Project.

General questions can be directed to Perioperative.Services@nshealth.ca