Welcome to South Niagara

Welcome to South Niagara in Niagara Health. We hope you will enjoy being part of our medical family. One of the great advantages of our diverse health community is the broad variety of work environments available, from community teaching environments, to rural Urgent Care sites. Each has different opportunities and challenges and the variety can keeps things continuously fresh. We encourage all physicians to work across the region to take best advantage of this diversity. I hope you find this brief information page informative in addition to in-person orientation.

Please feel free to contact me at any time: [email protected] if you have any challenges, concerns or questions.

Business Items

Welland, Port Colborne, and Ft. Erie are AFA sites. Niagara Falls is FFS. You are paid an hourly rate. In Welland and Ft. Erie, you will also receive 37.5% of your billings (more in the summer and holidays) and in Port Colborne you receive 10% of your billings. When appropriate, we try to bill G codes for transfers to our ED. At the end of your shift, you will fax your billings sheets to our billing agent who will e-mail a summary to you within approximately 48 hours. Niagara falls physicians are responsible for their own billings.

All questions relating to billing can be sent to:

Christina Dobsi: [email protected]

Transfers

Our urgent care sites are just that: Urgent cares. Therefore, we try our best to move any sick patient or patient requiring further evaluation early in their course. Please see the guidelines below for receiving sites:

Our Urgent Care receiving site for Internal Medicine, General Surgery and general Diagnostic Imaging is Welland (WGH). We accept all consults at all times as a matter of group policy.

The referral sites (regionally) for OBGYE, Psychiatry, and Paediatrics is St. Catherines (SCS). Patients should be transferred directly to SCS and not to Welland or GNG (if presenting in the UCC).

The referral location for Ortho, ENT, urology and other services can vary a little in the region. Refer to the call sheet and allow the consultant to guide you.

Handovers

We try hard as a group to get our colleagues out of the department on time. In Welland, our end times are roughly flexible when the new physician arrives. If the department is very manageable, we go home “early”. If the department is overwhelmed - we help out. Our group has a policy of enabling early assessments by handing over patients with results pending. Please give a verbal handover to the incoming physician of all patients and transfer patients in meditech. This is imperative to avoid anyone slipping through the cracks.

Consultants and Radiology

Generally our consultants are pretty receptive. We try our best not to bombard them after 2300. Currently, we hold non-urgent consults after 2300 until the morning, thought this practice may change. Please read the NH Consultation Coverage Policy.

All internal medicine admissions go to the internist on call regardless of their anticipated destination (ex floor, ICU, hospitalist). This has been done to avoid ownership debates.

All surgical-related matters go to surgery whether they require immediate surgery or not.

It is the consultants responsibility to consult hospitalists and intensivisits or other specialities if they believe this is required.

We have 24/7/365 access to DI and CT. If you need a read in the middle of the night, please call the radiologist. If you need a paediatric CT, or a vascular study after hours you will also call DI for this.

Urgent Care Support

Every once in a while, patients make poor destination choices. This means a patient requiring intubation or critical support will land in our UCCs. If there is a second ED physician in Welland and you receive a call for help - please attend.

If you are the UCC doc in need of help please call:

• the HOCC physician.

• The RT may also attend when feasible from GNGH (for DMH) or Welland (PCG).

• If this occurs during the day after 1300, you can also call the second Welland ED physician to provide assistance.

• The nurses also have a short list of local physicians that may be able to attend if they are available.

• If anaesthesia is available, they are also open to providing assistance though they are not technically on call for these sites.

Questions?

Please feel free to contact me at any time:

Dr Pam [email protected] or (905) 378-4647 x37732

It always takes a while to learn the local idiosyncrasies of every work environment. Remember the nurses are a fantastic resource and so are your colleagues. We know you will find Niagara to be a special and unique place to work and thank-you for becoming part of our team!