How to refer my patient to Coxa

Increased freedom of choice enables patients to choose together with their doctor the place for having non-urgent surgery.

The current Health Care Act provides the freedom to choose a treatment place from among any public unit of specialised health care in Finland. Freedom of choice in specialised health care applies to the provision of non-urgent service and treatment by a specialist in a hospital.

Coxa is a publicly owned limited liability company and belongs to the PHD Group, so a licensed doctor can refer a patient to us by providing them with a referral indicating the freedom of choice of treatment place. The referral is addressed to PHD/Coxa. Postal address for paper-format referrals: Coxa Hospital for Joint Replacement, Niveltie 4, FI-33520 Tampere.

The referral must include the patient’s X-ray images (no older than 12 months, transferred to Coxa’s PACS system). Please ensure with the patient that they have updated their consent for data sharing in Omakanta. This consent allows X-ray images to be shared between service providers, for example between public and private healthcare.

In addition, the patient’s hemoglobin level and long-term blood glucose (HbA1c) should be checked when preparing the referral. If the patient’s hemoglobin is below the laboratory reference range, investigations for anemia should be initiated without delay. If the HbA1c value is 48 or higher in a non-diabetic patient, or over 60 in a diabetic patient, diabetes evaluation or optimization of treatment should be started promptly. A dental examination is also advisable at this stage to avoid delays in potential surgical treatment.