NOTE: ALL urgent Orthopedic Surgeon referrals including trauma and fracture patients MUST include a call to the orthopaedic surgeon on-call.

Banff Sport Medicine provides world-class care in sport-related musculoskeletal trauma and reconstructive surgery. We provide clinical care and surgical reconstruction of sports trauma, with particular interest in the knee and shoulder.  We see new patients from both the Mountain Parks region and other regions.

There is an average 3-8 month wait for new patient appointments, with triage completed using evidence-based guidelines based on injury type and severity, patient age, profession, and outcomes research.

PLEASE NOTE: In accordance with AAC /COA guidelines for knee arthroscopy and injections for knee osteoarthritis referrals for meniscal tears or knee OA must have completed a minimum 6 months of comprehensive non-operative management including injections prior to being triaged.

Referral Criteria

• Banff Sport Medicine’s (BSM) strengths are in tertiary care sport medicine orthopaedics and we appreciate referrals with that specialty focus. Our main focus is the treatment of knee ligament injuries, patellar instability, traumatic and/or limited osteochondral pathology and shoulder instability in the active patient.
• Our hospital anaesthesia criteria restricts surgery patients to ASA risk level 1 or 2. This excludes patients with multiple comorbidities, cardiac stents and obesity with a BMI of 35 or greater.

Referral Source

• Patients residing INSIDE the Mountain Park Region:
  • Physicians and physiotherapists are welcome to submit a completed BSM Referral Form or their own letter along with required information (refer to Required Info below). Referrals must be faxed to the Alberta FAST program 833-627-7023
  • Mountain Park Region comprises of the following areas – (from Banff):
    • West: to Revelstoke, through Golden (including Hwy 95 south to Fairmont Hot Springs)
    • East: to Morley and Ghost Lake (excluding Bragg Creek, Redwood Meadows and Cochrane)
    • North: to Jasper (excluding communities outside park boundaries)
    • South: to Fairmont Hot Springs (including Hwy 95 north to Golden)

• Patients residing OUTSIDE the Mountain Parks Region:
  • We do not accept referrals for rotator cuff tears, other shoulder concerns for patients aged over 50 years, scopes (meniscus or knee) for patients aged over 60 years, patients involved in litigation, or WCB cases.
  • Sport medicine physicians, orthopaedic surgeons and other rehabilitation and musculoskeletal specialist physicians are welcome to submit a referral along with required information (refer to Required Info below).
  • Please note we do not accept referrals from General Practitioners outside the Mountain Parks Region.

Required Information

• The following information MUST be included with each referral:
  • Patient: full name, address, date of birth, PHN, contact phone numbers and email addresses, height and weight, the reason for the referral, any recent relevant investigative tests or diagnostic imaging results, and relevant past medical history.
  • Referrer: full name, practice ID number, contact phone number

Acceptance/Refusal of Referrals

• In accordance with CPSA guidelines, within 14 days of receiving a referral our office will either advise the referrer and the patient that the referral has been accepted, or advise the referrer the referral has been declined.
• Our office will either contact the patient to book an appointment as soon as the referral is accepted or we will advise the patient that we will call back once an appointment becomes available.

Resources

BSM Referral Form
Standardized X-ray Views

For information on our Referral Information for Eastern BC region: Referral Information Eastern BC

Patient Information