Core Unit and Acute Care Service (ACS)

The Core Elective Clinic at the Civic Campus receives referrals from the community for non-emergency:

• cholecystitis
• hernia
• non-malignant GI tract surgery

The core elective surgeries are performed at the Civic and Riverside campuses of the Ottawa Hospital.

Acute Care Services (ACS)

The Ottawa Hospital has separate Acute Care Services at the General and Civic Campuses.  All General Surgery staff for each campus rotate through their ACS unit, approximately once every 10 weeks. Each ACS team consists of a Surgical Staff (and a Consulting Staff at the General Campus), 2 senior residents, and 3-4 junior residents.

The most frequent urgent cases are:

• Appendicitis
• Cholecystitis
• Bowel obstruction
• Emergency hernia surgery

Approximately 50% of patients admitted to ACS have surgery.  Patients stay a maximum of 2 weeks in ACS, if longer is required they are taken on by the appropriate subspecialty unit.

The Civic Campus has an ACS clinic as follow-up from the Emergency Department or from patient referral.

For both the Core Unit and ACS, the staff members are actively involved in the education of undergraduate medical students and postgraduate trainees (residents) and in continuing professional development for physicians in practice.