Strathmore healthcare team recognized

Melissa Strle
Times Reporter

 

A Strathmore team of healthcare providers from the Calgary Rural Primary Care Network was recognized for their contributions to primary health care earlier this year at the 50th annual Mackid Symposium.
Primary care is the care that patients receive for everyday healthcare needs, including care for chronic diseases, health advice and counselling from a family doctor or health care team.
The team works with Strathmore physicians including Dr. Alison Clark, family physician at Valley Medical Clinic and Calgary Rural PCN Medical Director, and is comprised of two registered dietitians, four registered nurses, one medical office assistant and one licensed practitioner nurse.
The Strathmore team awarded for their efforts has been operating for approximately six years and includes Michelle Rigg, Anne Jensen, Shee Lillejord, Leni Tishauser, Nicholas Creelman, Taralyn Nelson, Dawn Shave and Colleen Romaniuk.
Clark said that before the team was formed, Strathmore physicians really felt that chronic disease management was an important item to address and patients “really weren’t receiving enough services outside of the doctor’s office to ensure that they were managing their chronic health needs on a continual basis.”
Now, under the team program, physicians are able to refer patients to team members in between office visits which quite often only occur every two or three months.
Clark said these patients require more in-between care and the team provides “another person who’s paying attention to what their needs are.”
Clark works closely with registered nurse Anne Jensen and the two come together for weekly meetings to discuss patients’ needs.
The team is designed to be an extension of the care patients receive from their family doctors, and family doctors will refer particular team members to patients based on the care patients require.
The Strathmore team sets the stage to enable physicians to be able to refer patients for ongoing counselling concerning diets, exercise, managing blood sugars for diabetes and a host of other chronic diseases.
“As time has gone on, we’ve learned the best way to manage things so as we learn more, we’re able to provide more intensive services and understand what people need,” said Clark.
The interdisciplinary team works together to give the best medical care and screen prevention to patients, and brings a variety of different skill sets to the table for different patients.
Dawn Shave, registered nurse for the Calgary rural Primary Care Network (PCN) at the Strathmore Central Clinic said the team has been really great and “everybody works together” and keeps “the patients in mind, which is really nice because everyone has the same goal in the end.”
The team has regular meetings and communicates over the phone and via e-mail. They also meet with doctors on a daily basis, “to ensure our patients are getting comprehensive and continuous care,” said Shave. “It is very nice to be nominated for the work you are doing.”
The Mackid Symposium started in 1966 in honour of Dr. L. Mackid, who had a longstanding career as a family physician in Calgary and the surrounding rural area. The symposium has grown into an annual continuing medical education event for family physicians and members of multidisciplinary teams.
This year, the symposium hosted an event featuring Dr. Mike Evans, creator of the YouTube sensation “23 1/2 hours,” which has been viewed by over four million people. This YouTube video contains information about the health benefits of exercise.
The symposium also offered a full day program on a variety of topics of interest to family physicians and primary care multidisciplinary teams.
Featured topics included chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Type 2 diabetes, chronic pain, congestive heart failure, geriatric assessment and goal setting, fitness to drive, stress management, physician-assisted death and refugee health.