Theme 4. Building the rural health care team: making the most of available resources
Presentation Materials (Members only)
Presentation Slides: Building the rural health care team
Learning Objectives
Participants will learn:
- How a Northern FHT maximizes service delivery to expand available technology and minimize travel through OTN for shared care where there are no obstetrical services. A woman not traveling an hour for prenatal follow- up has made a difference in the lives of families experiencing a normal life event.
- How the FHT fostered collaborative relationships with the local hospital sharing IHP’s in order to maximize outpatient services.
- How collaborative partnerships maximized delivery of collective resources before Health Links inception. As a member of Timiskaming Health Link, our FHT led establishing and developing ICCPs (Integrated coordinated care plans).
Summary
The Kirkland Lake Family Health Team is located in Northeastern Ontario, serving a population of approximately 10,000 with demographics skewed towards the elderly and complex patients. The doctor shortage was severe, and reliance on locum physicians was high. Nurse Practitioners and IHPs have been the most stable part of our delivery team, at times being the main service providers in our community. Managing patients with complex care, multiple specialists, home care, and high demand for services caused frustration and fragmentation in care delivery for patients and providers. The integration of individual coordinated care plans (Health Links) has alleviated stress and demand on workload and enabled clients to better self-manage. Part of facilitating this has been involving the whole team as part of the process so that the delivery can be shared. We make extensive use of OTN. That has saved money and thousands of kilometers in travel, and hs avoided significant lost time at work for patients. We are currently participating in a research project to examine how to better prepare NP students for the challenges of managing patients with multiple comorbidities. The abstract for this paper has been accepted for presentation at the Canadian Association of Advanced Practice Nurses annual conference in Winnipeg in October, 2015. We provide placement for NP, RN and medical students. We hope to be setting the stage for professionals to return to practice in a facility which is proud to offer a truly integrated team approach. We are proud to discuss the innovations we have made to enhance service delivery as well as provider satisfaction and team integration at the AFHTO conference.
Presenters
- Kirkland District FHT:
- Christina Woollings, NP-PHC, Clinical Lead
- Julie Moody, RPN, Telemedicine Coordinator
- Mandy Weeden, Executive Director
- Sandra Dal Pai, NP-PHC; Adjunct Professor, Laurentian University