One Nail at a Time: Insights for Building Your Patient's Medical Home

In this episode, we're joined by Melissa Waddell in her role as President of the Alberta Primary Care Nurses Association.  She talks about the future of nursing in primary care as we move toward a greater focus on team-based care and sharing the load to manage the care deficit.  Melissa provides some details on the current scopes of practice for Alberta nurses - particularly RNs and LPNs,  and highlights areas where they can provide excellent support in busy family practices.

Alberta Primary Care Nurses Association
Primary Care Nursing in Alberta: A Guide to the Role
Primary Care Nurse Scheduling Guidelines

In the final episode of a 3-part series on streamlining family practice, we talk to Dr. Sarah Smith about how she transformed her practice by taking control of the aspects that she could. 

Listen as Dr. Smith describes how she realized that she needed to change the way she practiced, set a goal of getting home on time (and without extra work to do during evenings and weekends), and worked with her team to make her goal a reality.  She shares how she gets 'today's work done today' and provides tips and strategies that others may find helpful in streamlining their own practices.

In part 2 of a 3-part series on streamlining family practice, we learn more about the unique 'tech forward' approach that Dr. Kelly MacGregor and her colleagues have adopted at their clinic.  While the overall approach may not suit every practice, there may be elements that family docs could consider testing in their own practices.  

Listen as Dr. MacGregor describes how her clinic has addressed privacy concerns related to use of technology.  She also talks candidly about the products they use and the financial investment (spoiler alert: it's minimal!), and provides her advice for clinics interested in starting to incorporate more technology.  

Resources mentioned by Dr. MacGregor that CMPA has approved for Canadian use and meet current privacy legislation requirements*:

• Electronic medical record - Accuro by QHR Technologies
• Secure, EMR integrated messaging - Medeo Healthmail 
• Secure, EMR integrated patient questionnaires and forms - Ocean by CognisantMD
• Remote, EMR integrated cloud based fax - Unite Communications
• Online scheduler - Accuro by QHR Technologies
• Appointment reminders - Cliniconex
• Virtual platform - Doxy.me
• VOIP phone service - Line2
• Multi platform, multi user smart phrase manager - TextExpander

BOOK:  Slow Medicine - Dr. Victoria Sweet MD PhD

*Not intended as product endorsement

In part 1 of a 3-part series on streamlining family practice, we learn about the unique 'tech forward' approach that Dr. Kelly MacGregor and her colleagues have adopted at their clinic.  While the overall approach may not suit every practice, there may be elements that family docs could consider testing in their own practices.  

Listen as Dr. MacGregor describes how the strategies she uses have resulted in better standardization, increased efficiency and improved patient safety.  (In Part 2, she'll describe more about privacy concerns and financial requirements related to use of technology.)

Resources mentioned by Dr. MacGregor that CMPA has approved for Canadian use and meet current privacy legislation requirements*:

• Electronic medical record - Accuro by QHR Technologies
• Secure, EMR integrated messaging - Medeo Healthmail 
• Secure, EMR integrated patient questionnaires and forms - Ocean by CognisantMD
• Remote, EMR integrated cloud based fax - Unite Communications
• Online scheduler - Accuro by QHR Technologies
• Appointment reminders - Cliniconex
• Virtual platform - Doxy.me
• VOIP phone service - Line2
• Multi platform, multi user smart phrase manager - TextExpander

*Not intended as product endorsement

Join us as we learn about Alberta’s new ‘Home to Hospital to Home Transitions Guideline’.  Dr. Slocombe explains the 6 components that together help patients successfully transition from home to hospital to home.  She explains the roles of primary care and acute care, and the significant positive impact this guideline can have on continuity and the patient experience.  Best of all, once established, it could mean less work for your practice!

Home to Hospital to Home Transitions Guideline
Information on CII/CPAR

Also, check out Podcasts #15 & #16 for more information about CII/CPAR.

Join us as we talk to Dr. Ernie Schuster about practical strategies that physicians and clinic teams can take to provide timely access to care and optimize the opportunity for continuity of care.  Highlights include: 

• Specific strategies to balance your supply of appointments with the demand for them
• The value of eliminating ‘backlog’ for providing just-in-time care
• Using the medical home team to increase efficiency

(NOTE: To listen to Part 1, go to Episode 11: Tips for Enhancing Access with Dr. Janet Craig)

Resources:
HQCA Primary Healthcare Panel Reports

Join us as Dr. Karen Seigel shares the work she and her team have been doing focused on care of patients with COPD.  Some of the many highlights include:

• How patients with low relational continuity (<50%) are 7 times more likely to be admitted to hospital compared to those who see their own physician at least 80% of the time.
• How Dr. Seigel and her team used their EMR and HQCA reports to identify COPD patients at risk of exacerbation/hospitalization
• How the team shares the workload and focuses on streamlining clinic processes for COPD care
• Useful resources developed with the Health Quality Council of Alberta (HQCA)
• Simple steps teams can take to improve relational continuity

Resources

HQCA Quality Exchange: https://hqca.ca/health-care-provider-resources/qe/primary-healthcare/

Join Dr. Heather La Borde and Dr. Brad Bahler as they discuss their mutual sense of grief and loss related to the changes and uncertainty that COVID has brought, as well as how they’re finding hope and taking steps to prevent burnout.

• AMA Physician and Family Support Program
• Well Doc Alberta

Would you like to learn more?

The  Alberta Medical Association and Well Doc Alberta are offering a 1.25 hour session on physician wellness on Tuesday, June 16, from 7 p.m. – 8:15 p.m. entitled Physician Wellness: Feeling Distress, Understanding Loss and Finding Meaning.  During this session, physicians will have the opportunity to consider and better understand their distress during these challenging times. Along with knowledge offered by content expert Fleur Yumol, the webinar co-facilitators will guide you through short pauses for self-reflection and provide opportunities for sharing experiences with physician peers. This webinar is designed for physicians, but interested family members are also welcome to join.

Register in advance for this Zoom webinar:
https://albertadoctors.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_qK1BhlH6T6KRNpw55_uqXw

Join us as we hear about the experiences of community physicians who are currently participating in the Community Information Integration-Central Patient Attachment Registry (CII-CPAR) initiative.  

Featuring: Dr. Joseph Ojedokun, Dr. Steve Tilley and Dr. Chris Le 

• CII-CPAR Primary Care Tools & Resources
• CII Specialty Tools & Resources
• Alberta Netcare
• Alberta Patients Survey Press Release

Join Dr. Heidi Fell as she discusses the Community Information Integration-Central Patient Attachment Registry (CII-CPAR) initiative.  

• CII-CPAR Primary Care Tools & Resources
• CII Specialty Tools & Resources
• Alberta Netcare
• Alberta Patients Survey Press Release