Phoenix Medical Practice now has its own YouTube channel. This lets us provide videos for our patients. For example, we have a favourites list of health promotion videos from the excellent NHS Choices website.
Also, we will be adding links to health education videos for patients who are having tests or proceedures, such as the Animated Medicine presentation on Bowel Cancer Screening.
April 22, 2011
April 17, 2011
Health PEI Primary Care Networks
Unfortunately, I can't find anything on Health PEI's website to link to. However, Health PEI was presenting its view for the future of primary care in PEI. There were over 100 professionals present at the Stanley Bridge Resort, including family doctors, nurses, other health professionals, and administrators.
Deborah Bradley, Executive Director of Community Hospitals and Primary Health Care, and her colleagues - including Dr Richard Wedge, Executive Director of Medical Affairs, and a brief visit by Keith Dewar, Chief Executive Officer - talked about the type of service they wish to see in PEI.
Health PEI would like to see modern, collaborative health care provided by teams of professionals - doctors, nurses, and other health care workers - working together to provide the best care to the patient. They listed the keys to good health care as being equality, quality, efficiency, and sustainability. If this sounds familiar to our patients, it's because Health PEI's was describing the Phoenix Medical Practice. They even based their key factors on our motto: equality, quality, accessibility, sustainability.
The Phoenix Medical Practice was the only fee-for-service medical team to attend the conference. We were also the largest contingent, with 12 members of the team attending including our management team. Talking to other delegates there, the recurring comments from doctors and nurses present was that they had heard this all before many times but that they were no closer to achieving these ends in reality. Several family doctors commented that there was no mention of how Health PEI was going to implement this model of care.
This is the key problem facing Health PEI: they know what health care should look like, but they don't know how to get there. There was indeed no mention of a blueprint for developing this service, there was no mention of a timetable, and no talk of implementation. It has been at least 10 years since PEI's health managers first started talking about collaborative models of primary care, and to date we have seen almost no progress towards this model.
Another interesting point is that collaborative care, which is what we practice in the Phoenix Medical Practice, involves a team of professionals working together closely in a community medical center. Health PEI's planned primary care networks are actually an example of 'co-operative care' in which professionals work together separately towards a similar goal. Co-operative care is less complex to set up but is also less efficient and less effective than collaborative care.
Finally, the fact that we were the only fee-for-service unit represented is a worrying sign. Half of patients in PEI are served by fee-for-service doctors. If they are not engaged in the modernisation process, then clearly the plan will fail at it's first key test: equality.
So Health PEI has many challenges to face before modern primary care will be widespread in PEI:
1. It has to move from the planning stage of the development cycle to the implementation stage
2. It has to engage its own front line staff in the change process. We noted that the great majority of professionals attending the conference were not engaged and did not think the process of change would happen.
3. It needs to get physicians using a Electronic Medical Record that has the required 'high architecture' features. The current systems - Deltaware's iCore and Cerner - both lack these key features and are not suitable for collaborative care or for quality and outcomes measurement.
4. It has to engage the fee-for-service physicians in the process of change.
5. It has to resist the temptation to re-invent the wheel: PEI is a tiny province and does not have the skills or knowledge base to invent something as complex as this. Far better to take what is already working elsewhere and tweak it so it works here.
The good news is that Health PEI now has a powerful ally in the Phoenix Medical Practice. We are already where Health PEI would like to be, and we have a large team with the training, experience, and skills to implement change. We are also busy building the necessary infrastructure for that change to be possible:
1. We have implemented a high architecture electronic medical record (OSCAR), which is an essential part of quality care delivery and measurement.
2. We have implemented training programs for the key professionals - nurses and receptionists - and we have access to training programs for the other key groups: doctors and managers.
3. We have built a network of guidelines to allow other professionals to safely and effectively work collaboratively with family doctors.
4. We are building links with the other key stakeholders: for example UPEI for RN training, Holland College for LPN and medical receptionist training.
We are therefore offering to use our unique capabilities to help Health PEI implement the changes that it views as essential to the future of health care on PEI. By using the Phoenix Medical Practice as an example of what can be achieved in PEI we can dispel the commonly held view that improving health care delivery in PEI is not possible. By providing tours of our facility to doctors, nurses, politicians, and managers we are able to let them see what their modern health care system will look like. By offering training sessions and clinical placements to doctors, nurses, managers, and office staff we will be able to spread to other parts of PEI the necessary skills and experience which are currently lacking.
The future of health care in Prince Edward Island is already here. We just need to use the skills and training that we already have to spread that future around the province. The success of the Phoenix Medical Practice is therefore central to the success of health care in PEI.
April 7, 2011
Dr Shirin Majdi Zadeh to train as Family Doctor in Baltimore
We are delighted to announce that Shirin, one of our Health Care Technicians, has been accepted into a family practice residency program in Baltimore.
Many of our patients will know Shirin from her work in the practice.
Shirin trained as an M.D. in Tehran, Iran, and moved to PEI with her husband in 2009 as part of the Provincial Nominee Program. As an International Medical Graduate (IMG), Shirin was not licensed to practice medicine in Canada. She therefore joined the Phoenix Medical Practice as a Health Care Technician while she was applying for a family practice training program in the U.S. She has been in the U.S. attending interviews since December.
We have just heard that she has been accepted into a Family Practice Residency Program in Baltimore. She wanted to do her Family Practice residency program in Canada, but it is almost impossible to get on a Canadian training program. It's a national disgrace that 75% of International Medical Graduates (IMGs) moving to Canada will never be able to practice medicine here. It is hard enough for poorer countries to lose valuable resources such as highly-trained physicians, but for Canada to simply throw those physicians on the scrap heap is barbaric.
One problem IMGs face is that it takes them several years of taking expensive examinations in Canada before they can apply for a license, but when they apply they are told they have spent too long away from clinical work to be considered. Our Health Care Technician program is designed to overcome that problem: IMGs are able to be productive working in a clinical environment by carrying out clinical tasks that do not require a medical license. Shirin reports that her interviewers showed a lot of interest in her experience working in our modern collaborative medical practice. This helped her successfully fight off stiff competition for the training post.
We wish Shirin and her husband all the best in their move, and we would like to thank her from all of the staff and patients for her hard work and dedication during her time with the Phoenix Medical Practice.
Many of our patients will know Shirin from her work in the practice.
Shirin trained as an M.D. in Tehran, Iran, and moved to PEI with her husband in 2009 as part of the Provincial Nominee Program. As an International Medical Graduate (IMG), Shirin was not licensed to practice medicine in Canada. She therefore joined the Phoenix Medical Practice as a Health Care Technician while she was applying for a family practice training program in the U.S. She has been in the U.S. attending interviews since December.
We have just heard that she has been accepted into a Family Practice Residency Program in Baltimore. She wanted to do her Family Practice residency program in Canada, but it is almost impossible to get on a Canadian training program. It's a national disgrace that 75% of International Medical Graduates (IMGs) moving to Canada will never be able to practice medicine here. It is hard enough for poorer countries to lose valuable resources such as highly-trained physicians, but for Canada to simply throw those physicians on the scrap heap is barbaric.
One problem IMGs face is that it takes them several years of taking expensive examinations in Canada before they can apply for a license, but when they apply they are told they have spent too long away from clinical work to be considered. Our Health Care Technician program is designed to overcome that problem: IMGs are able to be productive working in a clinical environment by carrying out clinical tasks that do not require a medical license. Shirin reports that her interviewers showed a lot of interest in her experience working in our modern collaborative medical practice. This helped her successfully fight off stiff competition for the training post.
We wish Shirin and her husband all the best in their move, and we would like to thank her from all of the staff and patients for her hard work and dedication during her time with the Phoenix Medical Practice.
April 2, 2011
We'll be at the LPN Nursing Association Spring Conference
The Phoenix Medical Practice is at the cutting edge of modern primary care in Prince Edward Island and the Maritimes.Our Nursing Team are at the center of our drive to improve patient care in the province. We have three Licenced Practical Nurses (LPNs) in our nursing team. They are working to their full scope of practice which is allowing us to deliver higher quality care to our patients than has every been seen before in Prince Edward Island. Dozens of lives will be saved over the next 5 years, largely due to the hard work, dedication, training, and skill of these nurses.
So we are delighted that Dr Coull has been asked to speak at the LPN Spring Conference this year on behalf of the Phoenix Medical Practice about Primary Care Nursing. The Phoenix Medical Practice will also have a stall at the conference, and we hope to be able to meet and talk to as many LPNs as possible on the day.
You can download the slides from Dr Coull's talk "LPNs and Primary Care Nursing" here.
March 29, 2011
Phoenix Medical Practice Diabetes Care saving lives
Diabetes is a disease on the rise. As we live longer, with a poor diet and lack of exercise, more and more of us will become diabetic.
The Phoenix Medical Practice has a unique capability in PEI: we can use our cutting edge electronic medical record to search for diabetics and follow them up closely. This means that our Diabetes Nurse, can easily find out which of her patients have not been attending their follow up appointments. Of course, having our own Diabetes Nurse in the practice means that our diabetic patients get a fantastic service. The Practice Nurse and Medical Team work closely together under one roof. This means great communication and great care.
The main test for how well a diabetic is doing is the HbA1c test. This test measures the average sugar in your blood over the last 3 months. We know from research that the higher your HbA1c, the higher your chances of dying. Patients with a higher HbA1c are almost twice as likely to die over a 5 year period than patients with a good HbA1c.
Another capability we have is the ability to look at how well we are doing now or in the past. Our electronic medical record means that we can search in seconds for the average HbA1c from 18 months ago. It was 8.2. Another search for a year ago shows it had fallen to 7.85. A third search shows that our average HbA1c is 7.7 today.
This means that over the last 18 months we have reduced their chance of dying over the next 5 years by as much as 25%. Not only does this mean that our patients are going to live longer and be healthy longer, but they will be getting admitted to hospital less which means taxpayer's health dollars can be spent better.
We're really proud of the hard work of the whole team - from the receptionists who enter this data into the computers, to the nurses who encourage and educate patients, to the patients who are working hard to keep themselves healthy.
Congratulations and keep up the good work!
The Phoenix Medical Practice has a unique capability in PEI: we can use our cutting edge electronic medical record to search for diabetics and follow them up closely. This means that our Diabetes Nurse, can easily find out which of her patients have not been attending their follow up appointments. Of course, having our own Diabetes Nurse in the practice means that our diabetic patients get a fantastic service. The Practice Nurse and Medical Team work closely together under one roof. This means great communication and great care.
The main test for how well a diabetic is doing is the HbA1c test. This test measures the average sugar in your blood over the last 3 months. We know from research that the higher your HbA1c, the higher your chances of dying. Patients with a higher HbA1c are almost twice as likely to die over a 5 year period than patients with a good HbA1c.
Another capability we have is the ability to look at how well we are doing now or in the past. Our electronic medical record means that we can search in seconds for the average HbA1c from 18 months ago. It was 8.2. Another search for a year ago shows it had fallen to 7.85. A third search shows that our average HbA1c is 7.7 today.
This means that over the last 18 months we have reduced their chance of dying over the next 5 years by as much as 25%. Not only does this mean that our patients are going to live longer and be healthy longer, but they will be getting admitted to hospital less which means taxpayer's health dollars can be spent better.
We're really proud of the hard work of the whole team - from the receptionists who enter this data into the computers, to the nurses who encourage and educate patients, to the patients who are working hard to keep themselves healthy.
Congratulations and keep up the good work!
February 5, 2011
New! Clinical Services Development Manager: Liz Sajdak
We're delighted to announce we have appointed Liz Sajdak as Phoenix Medical Practice's new Clinical Services Development Manager.
The Clinical Services Development Manager is responsible for helping develop and run our primary care services. She will assist with the recruitment of doctors, nurses, and other health care professionals to our primary care team and liases with other services such as Health PEI and other health agencies.
Liz Sajdak trained as an RN in the UK and worked as a Health Visitor in England. She spent several years working as a National Health Service manager in the UK before moving to PEI. After moving to PEI she spent a year working for Health PEI developing clinical services for the province.
Currently Liz is working on helping us to roll out our Antenatal Shared Care service in PEI. She is also keen to meet patients and ask them their views on the current service, so don't be surprised to see her in the waiting room.
If you have any suggestions for services you would like to see in the Phoenix Medical Practice, ask to speak to the Clinical Services Development Manager.
The Clinical Services Development Manager is responsible for helping develop and run our primary care services. She will assist with the recruitment of doctors, nurses, and other health care professionals to our primary care team and liases with other services such as Health PEI and other health agencies.
Liz Sajdak trained as an RN in the UK and worked as a Health Visitor in England. She spent several years working as a National Health Service manager in the UK before moving to PEI. After moving to PEI she spent a year working for Health PEI developing clinical services for the province.
Currently Liz is working on helping us to roll out our Antenatal Shared Care service in PEI. She is also keen to meet patients and ask them their views on the current service, so don't be surprised to see her in the waiting room.
If you have any suggestions for services you would like to see in the Phoenix Medical Practice, ask to speak to the Clinical Services Development Manager.
January 22, 2011
New Practice Manager: Jane Davis-Moore
We're delighted to announce that Jane Davis-Moore will be starting work as our new Practice Manager from Monday the 24th of January 2011.
Jane is an experienced people manager, finance, and general operations manager. She moved to PEI with her family from the UK two years ago.
The Practice Manager is a key member of our team. She makes sure that the practice runs smoothly by overseeing the reception team, dealing with any complaints from patients, and handling any day to day issues as they arise.
The Practice Manager also makes sure that we are constantly improving the service we offer our patients: for example, by looking for patient feedback and organising high quality staff training.
Jane is an experienced people manager, finance, and general operations manager. She moved to PEI with her family from the UK two years ago.
The Practice Manager is a key member of our team. She makes sure that the practice runs smoothly by overseeing the reception team, dealing with any complaints from patients, and handling any day to day issues as they arise.
The Practice Manager also makes sure that we are constantly improving the service we offer our patients: for example, by looking for patient feedback and organising high quality staff training.
January 3, 2011
Happy New Year
A Happy New Year to all of our patients from everyone here at the Phoenix Medical Practice.
We will re-open for the New Year on Wednesday the 5th of January.
We will re-open for the New Year on Wednesday the 5th of January.
December 4, 2010
Need for charity sign of unfair society
Christmas Message 2010
Poverty affects us all - lets work to eliminate poverty - 'feel good' giving is a symptom, not a cure.
The need for charity is something that makes me very angry. It reminds me that our society is unjust. The poor continue to be poor, while the rich get richer. Rich people 'feeling good' about giving a few dollars or a few hours of their time to the 'deserving poor' is something I would love to see the end of.
In a fair society, the rich would pay more in tax and that money would go to raising the poor out of poverty.
In their book The Spirit Level, Richard Wilkinson and Kate Picket argue that everyone - rich and poor - is more happy in societies where the gap between rich and poor is less*. Money can't buy you happiness if it makes someone else poorer. We certainly see that every day in our medical practice. Patients who are sick and dying because they can't afford basic medications. They don't need charity, they need free prescriptions funded by taxpayers. Not only will the poor be happier then (they won't die as young), but the rich will be happier too (their tax money won't be wasted on unnecessary hospital admissions). I regularly waste tens of thousands of dollars of tax payers money admitting patients to hospital because they could not afford a $60 prescription. I'm tired of seeing legions of patients who are not poor, but are stressed and miserable because of the fear of losing money and becoming poor. If we had a proper social safety net, that fear would be less and they would be happier.
And don't waste time on the kind of ignorant narcissism displayed by far too many successful people that the poor are poor because of their own choices. We are all the product of our genes and our environment. The rich stack the table against the poor from before conception (leverage) and then add insult to injury by blaming the poor for being poor. 'Feel-good' giving to charity based on that view is like running someone down with your car and then feeling good about yourself because you gave them a band-aid.
A recent report by PEI MLAs recommends that our Social Assistance programs need an overhaul and more money. This, they say, is a matter of social justice not charity.
This Christmas season lets do some real good. Lets express some justified anger. Lets push for a future in which charity 'turkey drives' are just a memory of a dark and unfair past.
Poverty affects us all - lets work to eliminate poverty - 'feel good' giving is a symptom, not a cure.
The need for charity is something that makes me very angry. It reminds me that our society is unjust. The poor continue to be poor, while the rich get richer. Rich people 'feeling good' about giving a few dollars or a few hours of their time to the 'deserving poor' is something I would love to see the end of.
In a fair society, the rich would pay more in tax and that money would go to raising the poor out of poverty.
In their book The Spirit Level, Richard Wilkinson and Kate Picket argue that everyone - rich and poor - is more happy in societies where the gap between rich and poor is less*. Money can't buy you happiness if it makes someone else poorer. We certainly see that every day in our medical practice. Patients who are sick and dying because they can't afford basic medications. They don't need charity, they need free prescriptions funded by taxpayers. Not only will the poor be happier then (they won't die as young), but the rich will be happier too (their tax money won't be wasted on unnecessary hospital admissions). I regularly waste tens of thousands of dollars of tax payers money admitting patients to hospital because they could not afford a $60 prescription. I'm tired of seeing legions of patients who are not poor, but are stressed and miserable because of the fear of losing money and becoming poor. If we had a proper social safety net, that fear would be less and they would be happier.
And don't waste time on the kind of ignorant narcissism displayed by far too many successful people that the poor are poor because of their own choices. We are all the product of our genes and our environment. The rich stack the table against the poor from before conception (leverage) and then add insult to injury by blaming the poor for being poor. 'Feel-good' giving to charity based on that view is like running someone down with your car and then feeling good about yourself because you gave them a band-aid.
A recent report by PEI MLAs recommends that our Social Assistance programs need an overhaul and more money. This, they say, is a matter of social justice not charity.
This Christmas season lets do some real good. Lets express some justified anger. Lets push for a future in which charity 'turkey drives' are just a memory of a dark and unfair past.
November 29, 2010
New Walk In Clinic Thursday mornings 10 to 12
Following on from the success of our Rapid Access Clinics (which have been running weekdays 10am to 11am), we've decided to trial a Walk In Clinic on Thursday mornings. This will replace the Thursday morning Rapid Access Clinic and will run from 10am to 12am.
It will be open to everyone, even if they are not our patient. Patients attending the Sherwood Medical Center walk in clinic on Thursday mornings will be re-directed to our practice upstairs*. There should be space for up to 60 patients each morning, with the doctor being assisted by a Practice Nurse, a Pharmacy Technician, and three Health Care Technicians. We are hoping to keep waiting times short.
If it proves successful, we may add a second Walk In Clinic earlier in the week.
* And on the weeks that we are closed, our patients can attend the Sherwood Medical Practice walk in clinic downstairs instead.
It will be open to everyone, even if they are not our patient. Patients attending the Sherwood Medical Center walk in clinic on Thursday mornings will be re-directed to our practice upstairs*. There should be space for up to 60 patients each morning, with the doctor being assisted by a Practice Nurse, a Pharmacy Technician, and three Health Care Technicians. We are hoping to keep waiting times short.
If it proves successful, we may add a second Walk In Clinic earlier in the week.
* And on the weeks that we are closed, our patients can attend the Sherwood Medical Practice walk in clinic downstairs instead.
November 22, 2010
GPAQ Questionnaire Week
This week is Questionnaire week at the practice. Once a year we distribute questionnaires to patients visiting the practice. We use the answers to help us find ways to provide better care.If you have an appointment at the practice this week, you may be given a questionnaire when you check in. Please read the questionnaire carefully. Don't fill it in until after you have been seen by the doctor or nurse. Once you have filled it in, you can drop it back into reception. If you would prefer, we will give you an envelope so you can take the questionnaire home and mail it back to us later.
The questionnaire we use is the GPAQ questionnaire. It is specially designed by Manchester University in England for family practices. It is used by most NHS family physicians in the UK. We have been running it for several years.
The questionnaire is given to 60 consecutive patients for each doctor and nurse in the practice over the week. It is anonymous. Staff will not know who has filled in each questionnaire.
The questions relate to how easily you can access care at the practice, waiting times, and how helpful you found your visit to the doctor/nurse. We use these answers to look for areas where we can improve what we are doing.
Thank you for helping us to help you.
October 29, 2010
Far too many patients still at risk from influenza - Scottish practice showing us up!
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| Our computer system speeds up the flu clinic and improves safety |
We have a lot of work to do after a disappointing start to our free flu clinics for our at-risk patients . Only
This is shockingly bad. Strachur Medical Practice, our Scottish sister practice is miles better at this with 95% of their Heart Disease, 100% of their Chronic Bronchitis and 100% of their Diabetic patients vaccinated in 2009.
It means that the great majority of our elderly and chronic illness patients are at higher risk of catching influenza and dying this year. This is just not good enough.
We want to vaccinate at least 75% of our at-risk patients. This is based on the World Health Organization recommendations. You can watch how we are doing via this page and the tracker on our home page. They update with live data every 60 seconds.
We're now going to extend our access to free flu shots:
- To avoid confusion, flu shots are now free for all patients.
- We are going to run a drop in flu shot clinic every weekday from 10am to 2pm
- We are going to run an evening flu shot clinic from 2pm-6pm every Thursday.
- Our nursing team are going to be chasing up our at-risk patients.
Our Scottish sister practice is way ahead of us. Come on Canadians! Don't let the Scots show you up. You can do better!
October 10, 2010
New Schedule
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| Our new schedule is now up and running. |
We've moved the appointments around to reduce the waiting times. We've spaced out the medical appointments because they had the longest waits on the day, and we've started our Rapid Access Clinics for people who just need two or three minutes with the doctor. The Rapid Access Clinic runs weekdays from 10am till 11am.
Reduced waiting times
We trialled the new schedule last week, and on Friday (when most of the bumps had been ironed out!) the average waiting time for patients was down to 17 minutes. That's a great improvement from the average of around 1 hour that we had before we moved to the new premises, and the average of 35 minutes that we had with the old schedule. We continue to be able to offer appointments usually within a few days.
Our waiting times (both on the day, and for booking ahead) are displayed on our home page.
New opening hours - evening clinic on Thursdays
A couple of changes to hours as well. This is mainly due to the fact that we have had to postpone having a second doctor. The front desk will be open only from 10am until 2pm daily. We will also only be answering the phones between these hours.
We will now be offering appointments every weekday, but only between 10am and 2pm (except the Treatment Room Nurse who will remain open from 8.20am until 4pm). For patients who find it hard to take time off work, we will be starting an evening clinic running to 6pm on Thursdays from next month.
We're really pleased with this new schedule, and we hope it will make accessing care even easier for our patients.
September 26, 2010
Practice Nurses Tackling Obesity Epidemic
Canada is in the middle of a deadly obesity epidemic.
Which life do you want future generations of Canadians to have?
Obesity is classed as a Body Mass Index (BMI) of over 30. BMI is the ratio of your weight to your height.
The Pheonix Medical Practice computer system contains the height and weight of all of our patients who have been for their initial visit with our clinical team. Each night our computer re-calculates every patient's BMI and works out what percentage of our patients have a BMI over 30.
Today, the computer says 28% of patients at the Phoenix Medical Practice are classed as obese. In 1980 that figure would have been around 10%.
Obesity is a very serious medical condition.
Obesity is a killer. It puts a strain on your heart, lungs, blood vessels, and joints. Your risk of getting diabetes goes up with your weight. The World Health Organisation (WHO) suggests that 58% of diabetes, 21% of heart disease, and up to 42% of certain cancers are caused by higher weight (BMI above 21).
Condemning our children to a life of sickness and early death
Basically, your chances of being sick and dying young go up with your weight. As obesity rates rise, our children face a life of ill health and short lifespan unknown since the rise of modern medicine.
It's a nightmare that is unfolding so slowly that few are noticing it even happening. Combined with the body image problems of a size zero obsessed fashion industry, we have a society that has a terminal weight problem.
What can we do about it?
The solutions are actually quite simple in theory. We build roads that give priority to cyclists and walkers, we force the food industry to reduce hidden sugar and fat, and we tax sugary and fatty foods. Of course, none of these things are going to happen any time soon in a capitalist economic system addicted to unhealthy food and big cars. That's a discussion for you to have with your politicians. Dr Jenni Zelin is hard at work doing a great job pushing for more cycle lanes in PEI
In the mean time, our Practice Nursing Team will be following the WHO advice. The WHO is urging family physician teams to intervene with healthy eating and lifestyle advice. Our team of nurses are already doing that. They have lists of patients who are obese, and they will be working through the list calling them to offer them support and advice. Our Practice Nurses can run a very successful weight management program with these patients.
The WHO wants to see this introduced nationally. It thinks 40,000 Canadians will be saved if it is. We agree. Our team is already hard at work doing this.
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| Fast food, slow death (North America) | Healthy for life (Denmark) |
Obesity is classed as a Body Mass Index (BMI) of over 30. BMI is the ratio of your weight to your height.
The Pheonix Medical Practice computer system contains the height and weight of all of our patients who have been for their initial visit with our clinical team. Each night our computer re-calculates every patient's BMI and works out what percentage of our patients have a BMI over 30.
Today, the computer says 28% of patients at the Phoenix Medical Practice are classed as obese. In 1980 that figure would have been around 10%.
Obesity is a very serious medical condition.
Obesity is a killer. It puts a strain on your heart, lungs, blood vessels, and joints. Your risk of getting diabetes goes up with your weight. The World Health Organisation (WHO) suggests that 58% of diabetes, 21% of heart disease, and up to 42% of certain cancers are caused by higher weight (BMI above 21).
Condemning our children to a life of sickness and early death
Basically, your chances of being sick and dying young go up with your weight. As obesity rates rise, our children face a life of ill health and short lifespan unknown since the rise of modern medicine.
It's a nightmare that is unfolding so slowly that few are noticing it even happening. Combined with the body image problems of a size zero obsessed fashion industry, we have a society that has a terminal weight problem.
What can we do about it?
The solutions are actually quite simple in theory. We build roads that give priority to cyclists and walkers, we force the food industry to reduce hidden sugar and fat, and we tax sugary and fatty foods. Of course, none of these things are going to happen any time soon in a capitalist economic system addicted to unhealthy food and big cars. That's a discussion for you to have with your politicians. Dr Jenni Zelin is hard at work doing a great job pushing for more cycle lanes in PEI
In the mean time, our Practice Nursing Team will be following the WHO advice. The WHO is urging family physician teams to intervene with healthy eating and lifestyle advice. Our team of nurses are already doing that. They have lists of patients who are obese, and they will be working through the list calling them to offer them support and advice. Our Practice Nurses can run a very successful weight management program with these patients.
The WHO wants to see this introduced nationally. It thinks 40,000 Canadians will be saved if it is. We agree. Our team is already hard at work doing this.
September 22, 2010
The Phoenix Medical Practice - our new name!
The Phoenix Medical Practice is the new name of our medical practice.
We chose the name for several reasons. The phoenix is the mythical bird that rises from the ashes.
Lots of professionals work in a modern Medical Practice as part of the team, and our new name reflects this.
We will be updating our letterheads, signage, and painting a mural in the children's play area over the next few weeks to represent our new name.
We chose the name for several reasons. The phoenix is the mythical bird that rises from the ashes.
- The Phoenix Medical Practice has been set up as a response to Dr Coull's failed attempt to set up a collaborative model of care in the Four Neighbourhoods Community Health Center between October 2008 and February 2009. Four Neighbourhoods has since closed its family physician service.
- The Phoenix Medical Practice offices literally rose from the ashes of the old Maid Marion diner, which burnt to the ground in 2009.
- We - along with some of our clinical team and lots of our patients - are incomers making a new life in a new land.
Lots of professionals work in a modern Medical Practice as part of the team, and our new name reflects this.
We will be updating our letterheads, signage, and painting a mural in the children's play area over the next few weeks to represent our new name.
September 11, 2010
Update: new doctor pulls out of coming to PEI
**UPDATE**
Sadly, Dr Rawal has informed us that she has decided not to come to PEI. We have been talking to her about her move here for over two years, and we are terribly disappointed that she has decided against coming.
This is a terrrible blow to our plans for the medical practice. We have been working hard over the last few months planning for the expansion of the practice, and we are very disappointed by this news.
It means that we will not be able to provide the level of service to our patients that we would like. We won't yet be able to provide the extended opening hours that we were planning. We won't yet be able to stay open during the doctor's vacations. We won't yet be able to provide the stability and sustainability that comes with a group practice.
We are actively looking for more doctors, and so we are hopeful that this is just a temporary setback.
Original post:
Our goal is to make sure that every patient in PEI has easy access to a family physician. To do this we plan to keep our doors open to new patients. Instead of closing our doors, as we register more patients we plan to add more doctors to our medical practice to meet demand.
As part of this plan, we have now appointed our second doctor. Dr Susan Rawal is a GP (family physician) in England. She is currently a partner in a medical practice with 21,000 patients. However, her husband has taken a job as a radiologist at the QEH hospital in Charlottetown and they will be moving to PEI this year with their three young children. Dr Rawal has kindly asked Health PEI if she can join our practice when she arrives and Health PEI have agreed to this.
The addition of a second doctor will make us a 'group practice'. This means that all of our patients will have access to both doctors. Patients will be able to book an appointment with the doctor of their choice.
We plan to continue to add more doctors to the practice as we grow over the next two to three years, and have a capacity in our current premises for up to 4 doctors and 12,000 patients. We have also been approached about the possibility of opening a branch practice in the future in Prince County to tackle the physician shortage there.
This is fantastic news for the residents of Queens County who have struggled with a shortage of family physicians for so long. Once up and running our medical practice will have the following advantages:
We are delighted to be able to continue our work to improve access to high quality care and I'm sure all our patients will be as excited as we are about Dr Rawal coming to join us in January.
Sadly, Dr Rawal has informed us that she has decided not to come to PEI. We have been talking to her about her move here for over two years, and we are terribly disappointed that she has decided against coming.
This is a terrrible blow to our plans for the medical practice. We have been working hard over the last few months planning for the expansion of the practice, and we are very disappointed by this news.
It means that we will not be able to provide the level of service to our patients that we would like. We won't yet be able to provide the extended opening hours that we were planning. We won't yet be able to stay open during the doctor's vacations. We won't yet be able to provide the stability and sustainability that comes with a group practice.
We are actively looking for more doctors, and so we are hopeful that this is just a temporary setback.
Original post:
Our goal is to make sure that every patient in PEI has easy access to a family physician. To do this we plan to keep our doors open to new patients. Instead of closing our doors, as we register more patients we plan to add more doctors to our medical practice to meet demand.
As part of this plan, we have now appointed our second doctor. Dr Susan Rawal is a GP (family physician) in England. She is currently a partner in a medical practice with 21,000 patients. However, her husband has taken a job as a radiologist at the QEH hospital in Charlottetown and they will be moving to PEI this year with their three young children. Dr Rawal has kindly asked Health PEI if she can join our practice when she arrives and Health PEI have agreed to this.
The addition of a second doctor will make us a 'group practice'. This means that all of our patients will have access to both doctors. Patients will be able to book an appointment with the doctor of their choice.
We plan to continue to add more doctors to the practice as we grow over the next two to three years, and have a capacity in our current premises for up to 4 doctors and 12,000 patients. We have also been approached about the possibility of opening a branch practice in the future in Prince County to tackle the physician shortage there.
This is fantastic news for the residents of Queens County who have struggled with a shortage of family physicians for so long. Once up and running our medical practice will have the following advantages:
- A choice of which doctor you see when booking in advance.
- A choice of a female or male doctor depending on your needs.
- A medical practice that is never closed for vacations.
- A new 'Rapid Access Clinic' which will allow patients to see a doctor within 48hours for urgent conditions.
- A planned joint injection clinic.
- Patients will not 'lose' their family physician if one doctor leaves. Even if one doctor leaves the group practice, the other doctors can carry on until a replacement is found. This will hopefully mean an end to thousands of patients suddenly finding themselves without a family doctor.
- We operate the style of medical practice that modern family physicians are used to elsewhere.
- We have already been contacted by several Canadian doctors who have seen us on the internet and are interested in moving to PEI.
- Our Health Care Technicians will be taking their Canadian exams over the next couple of years and may be able to become physicians within the practice once they obtain Canadian licenses.
- One of our Health Care Technicians, Shirin Majdi Zadeh, will be leaving us to start her Family Practice intern training in the US in November. We would be delighted if she chose to return to work with us in three years time when she is a fully qualified family doctor.
- Every month we are visited by doctors and people in health-related fields from around Canada interested in how we have set up our medical practice.
We are delighted to be able to continue our work to improve access to high quality care and I'm sure all our patients will be as excited as we are about Dr Rawal coming to join us in January.
August 14, 2010
Dr Fox - Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
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| Dr Declan Fox, Family Physician |
Dr Fox is a Northern Irish GP (Family Physician) who is experienced in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). CBT is commonly called "talking therapy". It is very effective for patients with anxiety, depression, stress, insomnia, post-traumatic stress disorder, chronic pain, and panic attacks.
Dr Fox has been coming to work in PEI for around 10 years now - mainly over in West Prince. He is completing his diploma in CBT, and will be returning to visit our practice again next year. On his next visit, as well as seeing patients, he will be training our nursing staff in how to support patients who are using self-directed CBT. That is, CBT using the excellent self-help website Living Life to the Full and the self-help books written by Professor Chris Williams of Glasgow University. We have several copies of Dr Williams' books Overcoming Depression and Overcoming Anxiety in our medical library. These books are available to our patients to take out on loan.
If you would like more information about CBT, please book an appointment with one of our Practice Nurses.
CBT practitioners are sadly quite rare, and we'd like to thank Dr Fox for taking the time to help out our patients and staff. We are sure that the patients who meet him will find him as thoughtful, helpful and caring as we do.
August 7, 2010
Colour coded staff uniforms
We are a large medical practice with a large team. It's important that patients, staff and visitors can easily and quickly identify different staff groups. This improves safety and efficiency.
That is why we have standardised staff uniforms that are colour coded.
Registered Nurses wear navy blue tunics. Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs) wear 'hospital blue' tunics. Health Care/Pharmacy Technicians wear white tunics.
Receptionists wear a black and white pattern tunic.
The licensed physicians, our Practice Pharmacist, and the management team will continue to wear street-clothes ('civvies').
The staff uniform color coding for our Sherwood practice and our Strachur practice are based on the Scottish National Health Service (NHS Scotland) national uniforms (although we are still using the 'old' uniform style which is more appropriate for primary care) and the NHS Scotland staff dress code.
That is why we have standardised staff uniforms that are colour coded.
Registered Nurses wear navy blue tunics. Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs) wear 'hospital blue' tunics. Health Care/Pharmacy Technicians wear white tunics.
 Registered Nurses (RNs) wear navy blue tunics |  Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs) wear 'hospital blue' tunics |
 Health Care Technicians and our Pharmacy Technician wear white tunics |  |
Receptionists wear a black and white pattern tunic.
The licensed physicians, our Practice Pharmacist, and the management team will continue to wear street-clothes ('civvies').
The staff uniform color coding for our Sherwood practice and our Strachur practice are based on the Scottish National Health Service (NHS Scotland) national uniforms (although we are still using the 'old' uniform style which is more appropriate for primary care) and the NHS Scotland staff dress code.
July 23, 2010
Practice reopening
**UPDATE**
The practice is reopening today (Monday) at 1pm.
Apologies to any patients for any disruption.
__________________________
The practice staff have received a telephone call from a known violent offender which could be construed as posing a threat of serious violence involving the use of a firearm.
As a result the medical practice is currently locked down. Police officers are in attendance at this time.
Patients are advised not to attend the practice which will remain closed at least until Monday afternoon.
We will update this site with more details as they become available.
The practice is reopening today (Monday) at 1pm.
Apologies to any patients for any disruption.
__________________________
The practice staff have received a telephone call from a known violent offender which could be construed as posing a threat of serious violence involving the use of a firearm.
As a result the medical practice is currently locked down. Police officers are in attendance at this time.
Patients are advised not to attend the practice which will remain closed at least until Monday afternoon.
We will update this site with more details as they become available.
Collaborative care will not mean less doctors on PEI
CBC ran a story yesterday about a leaked copy of the draft Hay report into the future of health care on PEI.
I've not read the report, but they make reference to a suggestion that the number of doctors in PEI may be cut. This could obviously cause concern for patients and doctors who might be worried about the effect this might have on their care.
No matter what the report contains, the changes in health care will not reduce the need for doctors in the province. Improvements in health care delivery will mean better care for patients. However, there are lots of reasons why the number of doctors won't be able to be safely reduced in the foreseeable future:
1. There is a huge unmet health need. Better working will help meet, but will not exceed this need.
2. The population is aging.
3. As care improves, people need more care for the complex chronic illnesses that they are living longer with.
4. It will take 15 years to introduce changes across the health care system.
5. As the use of nurses and technicians increases, they will become an increasingly valuable resource, slowing the rate of change and increasing costs.
I'm looking forward to reading the final report when it is published.
I've not read the report, but they make reference to a suggestion that the number of doctors in PEI may be cut. This could obviously cause concern for patients and doctors who might be worried about the effect this might have on their care.
No matter what the report contains, the changes in health care will not reduce the need for doctors in the province. Improvements in health care delivery will mean better care for patients. However, there are lots of reasons why the number of doctors won't be able to be safely reduced in the foreseeable future:
1. There is a huge unmet health need. Better working will help meet, but will not exceed this need.
2. The population is aging.
3. As care improves, people need more care for the complex chronic illnesses that they are living longer with.
4. It will take 15 years to introduce changes across the health care system.
5. As the use of nurses and technicians increases, they will become an increasingly valuable resource, slowing the rate of change and increasing costs.
I'm looking forward to reading the final report when it is published.
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