Rapid Access Clinic for Low Back Pain
Overview
Improving access to care and satisfaction for patients with low back pain or radicular leg pain.
The Rapid Access Clinic for Low Back Pain (RAC LBP), a provincial initiative funded by the Ministry of Health, gives patients low back pain assessment, education and evidence-based self-management treatment plans within 6 weeks of referral.
The clinic works with community-based advanced practice health-care providers who have received specialist training to provide comprehensive assessments and form collaborative care plans with an emphasis on education and self-management.
Patients are sorted based on symptomatic presentation, risk of chronicity, risk of inflammatory arthritis and risk of opioid dependence to help determine their plan of care.
Patients who require surgical consult, interventional procedures and/or diagnostic imaging will be referred to a hospital-based practice lead (The Ottawa Hospital Civic Campus) for further management.
Program goals
Improve access to care and satisfaction for patients with six weeks to 12 months of low back and/or radicular leg pain.
Reduce unnecessary referrals to surgeon specialists.
Reduce unnecessary lumbar MRI scans.
Referrals
Referrals are only accepted from registered primary care providers (family physicians and nurse practitioners).