Clinical Excellence in Urgent Neurology

The Urgent Neurology Clinic is part of the Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Calgary.  It is an out-patient clinic, located on the twelth floor of the Foorhills Medical Centre.  A second site has been in operation at the Rockyview Hospital since Fall of 2008.

Our mandate is to provide urgent neurology consultation service to the people of Southern Alberta and Eastern British Columbia, who require urgent, but not emergent, assessment. 

The Urgent Neurology Clinic started in September 2000 as a two year pilot project funded by the Medical Services Innovation Fund, Alberta Medical Association and Alberta Health and Wellness.  The clinic was developed due to the frustration, emergency physicians and general practitioners were experiencing, regarding access to neurologists for urgent patients.

The development of this clinic was expected to reduce the frequency of referrals to the emergency room by general practitioners.  It was also expected to reduce the number of emergency referrals to neurologists for urgent, but not emergent patients, once assessed by emergency physicians.  These situations were known to utilize valuable resources within the emergency room and delay access for other outpatients.  It was also thought that this service might reduce the number of neurological in-patient admissions, which were deemed necessary for investigations.

The pilot project was successful, with all parties involved giving positive feedback.  In October 2002, the Urgent Neurology Clinic became a permanent program in the Department of Clinical Neurosciences.