The planned Peaks to Prairies Primary Care Network (PCN) that will service Olds and Sundre will go "live" in late fall, the network’s co-chair and secretary said on Aug. 8. Dr.
The planned Peaks to Prairies Primary Care Network (PCN) that will service Olds and Sundre will go "live" in late fall, the network’s co-chair and secretary said on Aug. 8.
Dr. Jaco Hoffman, who is based in Olds, said with the approval of its business plan earlier this year and the hiring of an executive director last week, the network, which he describes as a collaboration amongst people in various health-care fields to identify and fill gaps in local health-care services using local resources, is ready to become fully operational.
Physicians from Olds and Sundre started the process of creating the not-for-profit network in 2010 and an executive committee consisting of local doctors and representatives from the Alberta Medical Association and Alberta Health Services was formed.
The network is a joint venture between the communities and Alberta Health Services.
After a business manager was hired to prepare a business plan for the network, however, the process hit a snag when the future of primary care networks and family care clinics in the province became uncertain, Hoffman said.
Local network plans were "put on hold," he added, and a provincial committee that approves network business plans and funding was "halted."
But an interim committee focused on care networks in Alberta was created and the drive to create a local network ended up back on the rails after its proponents sent a letter to the provincial health minister seeking support for the business plan.
After what Hoffman described as a "battle," the health ministry approved the plan in late winter, giving the local committee the go-ahead to proceed with getting the network up and running.
"We are now for sure approved as a PCN," he said, adding the province will also provide annual per-capita funding of $62 per patient for the goals outlined in the network’s business plan.
The next step, Hoffman added, was to hire an executive director to help the network achieve the projects and priorities outlined in the business plan.
On Aug. 6, the network announced it had hired Michelle Thompson, who for the past four years was a human resources project manager for the Bermuda Hospitals Board in Bermuda and worked for eight years in human resources for the Calgary Health Region.
Hoffman said the network wanted someone local with a rural background and business experience to fill the executive director position and after interviewing a handful of people found the right candidate in Thompson, who has bought a home in the Didsbury area.
Her start date was Aug. 12 and Hoffman said Thompson’s role is to be an "executive team leader" in areas such as human resources, administration, projects, day-to-day operations and communications between physicians, "allied health-care working staff," such as physiotherapists, dentists or dieticians, and others with interests in the network including media, volunteers and municipal officials.
The network has identified four priority goals in the business plan that Thompson is responsible for making sure get carried out.
Hoffman said the four priority areas are "complex care and chronic disease programs, mental health and social work, women and infant health and prevention programs."
The province will audit the network regularly to ensure it is using its funding to work towards those goals, he added.
The business plan is good for two years and will then be re-evaluated.
Once the network is up and running, Hoffman said, it will allow physicians in Olds and Sundre to tackle that quartet of priorities in more efficient ways and to enhance existing health care with help from other health-care professionals, specialists and even volunteers.
For example, Hoffman said the network could allow for collaborations between doctors and dieticians to fight a problem such as childhood obesity through educational programs in local schools.
Or, the network could use its funding to hire a chronic disease nurse to spend time in Olds and Sundre who could, after a coordinated communication system is put in place for the pair of communities, share real-time results from a meeting with a patient with that patient’s doctor so the doctor has all the information necessary to be ready the next time he or she meets with the patient.
Such a program, Hoffman said, could reduce wait times and stress for patients.
"Through this system, we can now pursue any way possible to promote health care," he said, adding health care in Olds and Sundre is still "physician driven."
"We really want to get as much help for you as the patient to get all the info and all the concerns and everything to your physician to make adequate decisions."
With the launch of the network finally on the horizon, Hoffman said he and the rest of the people who have been pushing for its creation have "high expectations."
"We actually want to be the model of primary health care for the province. That’s what we’re aiming for."
According to the provincial Primary Care Initiative, which was established in 2003 by Alberta Health, the Alberta Medical Association and Alberta Health Services to develop and support primary care networks, there are currently 40 networks operating in Alberta and 2,500 doctors are working with those networks.
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