Specialists have an important role in PCNs and work is underway to enhance GPs and specialists collaboration in support of PCNs’ goals at an early stage.
Read more on the Doctors of BC website.
Doctors can learn how to use EMR data and build sustainable workflow processes to enable the proactive management of their patient panels by working through the new GPSC Panel Management Workbook and Manual.
For more than 15 years, family doctors have made their voices heard and therefore helped shape primary care in BC through the GPSC. With the support of the GPSC’s programs and initiatives, doctors have made significant progress to strengthen full-service family practice, increase professional satisfaction and experiences, and improve patient care.
Watch a short video that captures the journey thus far:
Family doctors tell us that GPSC fees are more aligned and simpler after the GPSC made changes to some of its fees last year. The changes focused on ensuring billing rules are consistent and easier to understand.
But, doctors tell us that there is more we can do to support them, particularly with billing some fees that might be complicated.
Panel management is a process of proactively managing a defined population of patients, using EMR data to identify and respond to patients’ chronic and preventative care needs. To help doctors and their teams implement and sustain panel management, the GPSC has developed the Phases of Panel Management – a framework that helps doctors and their teams introduce and implement new tools and clinic processes to enable planned proactive care.
To support practice teams undertaking the Phases of Panel Management, the following GPSC supports are available:
Work is underway to increase team-based supports for patients across the province. Adding teams of health professionals helps family doctors’ practices operate at an ideal level as a patient medical home. Team-based care is also central to primary care networks – a clinical network of providers in the community who work together to support patients.
In light of the PCN work that underway across the province, many family doctors are partnering with nurses in their practices to ease pressures and improve patient access to comprehensive care that best meets their needs.
Read more on the Doctors of BC website.
The GPSC is asking family doctors who currently use or have used the GPSC fees to complete a short survey to make sure the fees support doctors in their practice.
Physician responses will help the GPSC develop billing education supports that will aim to provide better understanding of how to appropriately bill GPSC incentives in practice.
Click here to start the survey, which will take about 15 minutes to complete. Participation is voluntary and anonymous.
With the implementation of primary care networks (PCNs) across the province, the Ministry of Health is forming a new Primary and Community Care Policy Implementation Committee (PCCPIC) to oversee the various aspects of implementation of PCNs and an integrated system of primary and community care across the province. The committee will be established in September 2018 and stand until March 31, 2020. It may be renewed at that time, at the discretion of the Ministry of Health.
As part of their work on the Residential Care Initiative, South Okanagan Similkameen division doctors began undertaking meaningful medication reviews in local facilities. The resulting changes to patients’ prescriptions caused an increase in the number of medications being returned to pharmacies for disposal—an issue physicians soon realized could be solved by a simple policy change impacting how medications are ordered during the prescribing process.