While Ms. McQueen’s mother has had a number of long stints in the hospital, thanks in part to EMRs and her daughter’s ongoing communication with Dr. Larsen, she is still able to live at home most of the time with her daughter and son-in-law.
Being in regular contact with the family practitioner also made a big difference when her mother was in the hospital receiving acute care, says Ms. McQueen. “It made me feel like we had a support team.”
All physicians quoted in this article use PS Suite EMR and are clients of MD Physician Services Software. PS Suite EMR is a leading EMR solution, which also offers a fully integrated mydoctor.ca Health Portal, developed exclusively for Canadian physicians.
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IMPROVEMENTS
Initiatives aim to improve care and better manage health care costs
In an age of health care cutbacks and harried practitioners, a sign in Dr. Davidicus Wong’s medical office in Burnaby, B.C., sends an unusual message. The sign asks patients to reveal their “complete lists” of medical problems at the start of each visit, “so that each can be addressed thoroughly” by the family physician and his staff.
It’s a philosophy of quality that Dr. Wong both practices and teaches as the Family Practice Champion of the province’s Practice Support Program.
Set up by the B.C. Medical Association (BCMA) and the BC Ministry of Health under the General Practice Services Committee (GPSC), the program helps family doctors and their offices enhance both their efficiency and the level of care they provide. It includes financial incentives, strategies and training modules in areas ranging from chronic disease management to better scheduling, sessions that Dr. Wong helps to deliver.
“I tell my colleagues to ‘embrace the list,’” he says, explaining that some doctors limit patients to one medical problem per visit, to keep appointments short. But it can actually be more efficient for the doctor to know all aspects of their conditions, because it can help uncover related issues and plan overall care, says Dr. Wong, who has been practising for 20 years. “It’s a new way of listening.”
Such quality initiatives are intended to improve the health of the population, enhance the patient experience and reduce or at least control the cost of health care.
“We are on the right track,” says Dr. Nasir Jetha, the president of the BCMA, adding that the GPSC is having a beneficial effect on processes and outcomes in the province. “The patient is getting the best care possible, the physicians have the right tools, and it’s a benefit to the health care system in terms of savings.”
Dr. Jetha, who has been practising as a pediatrician in Vancouver for 27 years, says that “managing change can be challenging” for doctors. “But we can’t throw our hands up in the air when we see there are ways by which we can deliver better care and better quality.”
There are more to come in B.C., Dr. Wong says, such as additional training modules focused on areas such as palliative care and youth mental health.
“There’s many, many layers to improving quality,” he explains. For example, he is the Medical Lead and Chair of the Burnaby Division of Family Practice, set up under the GPSC, sort of “a new doctor’s lounge” where a community’s family physicians have a voice to improve the health of their patients, he says. “We’re no longer working in isolation.”
The divisions, as well as the training modules and other strategies, spell “the renaissance of family practice,” he says. “We’re closing the care gap between what patients need and what they get.”
