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From the Primary Care Alliance
For this month’s edition of Primary Care News, I wanted to end with a personal message as this will be my last month as chair of the Primary Care Alliance. I know the state we find ourselves currently in is extremely difficult for practicing longitudinal family physicians. The combination of financial and workload pressures, mixed with the feeling of being systemically underappreciated, has taken its toll on many of you. Family medicine is both an extremely rewarding job and at the same time a difficult one, and I wanted to extend my thanks to every family physician who has shown dedication and grace during the past years. You are all amazing.
Looking back on my time as chair, it would be easy to dismiss any progress made based on an assessment of the current state. But I think doing so would be disrespectful to the leadership I have seen from family physicians over the past decade who have worked tirelessly on your behalf to achieve a stronger profile for family medicine and primary health care. I have had the pleasure to work with incredible people from the Section of Family Medicine, Section of Rural Medicine, Physician Leads Executive, Alberta College of Family Physicians, and our universities along with many other partners who have a shared objective of achieving not only an adequate, but a powerful primary care sector. I would also extend special thanks to the Alberta Medical Association ACTTeam who have supported not only me but the work of the Primary Care Alliance since its inception.
Everything in life goes though cycles of renewal, and family medicine has been through a few of these cycles in my career. Whether you’re a new graduate starting out, or you have been looking after your patients for years, I am confident things will come around again and there will be a brighter future ahead. I encourage you to stay hopeful, stay curious and look for opportunities that may present.
One of the physicians leading us into the future will be Dr. Emmanuel Gye who has agreed to take on the role of PCA chair. Dr. Gye brings thoughtfulness, compassion, and a balanced approach to the role. I truly appreciate his leadership style and I know he will infuse a new perspective and new energy into the Primary Care Alliance that will have a lasting impact. With his leadership, and the will and energy of our other amazing primary care leaders, PCA is in great hands.
Dr. Brad Bahler
Chair
Primary Care Alliance
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Millions flowing in CII/CPAR Acceleration Grant payments
Over $4 million from the Community Information Integration & Central Patient Attachment Registry Acceleration Grant has been paid out to physicians participating in the program.
Want your funds electronically?
Log into your AMA member dashboard and update your banking information.
The $12 million CII/CPAR Acceleration Grant is funded entirely by Alberta Health and provides compensation to physicians for their time and the administrative requirements to enrol and participate in CII/CPAR.
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PCNs recognized for CII/CPAR participation milestones
Did you know that 60% of Primary Care Network physicians are in-progress or live on Community Information Integration & Central Patient Attachment Registry?
Additionally, eight PCNs have reached the provincial target of greater than 80% eligible physicians live on CII/CPAR. These PCNs were presented a certificate of achievement this month.
Congratulations go to:
Central Zone PCNs - Camrose, Provost and Wainwright
North Zone PCNs – Bighorn, Bonnyville, Borealis, Lakeland and McLeod River
See the current province-wide progress at the link.
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Patient care improved thanks to CII/CPAR
Family physician, Dr. Andie Bains says, “I’ve seen patients benefit immensely when they experience continuity of care in action. When one of my patients presented at the hospital, the hospital team looked in Netcare and saw the Community Encounter Digest – which is made possible through CII/CPAR – and it showed I had seen the patient three times in the prior two weeks for hypertension. The team called me, and I shared information about the treatment plan.
This connection and information sharing resulted in in a more optimal patient outcome.”
CII/CPAR works! Your PCN and AMA ACTT are ready to help!
Find out how.
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It’s back! ACFP Thursday evening webinars
The Alberta College of Family Physicians' Thursday Evening Webinars start up again beginning October 12 with a special presentation from the Canadian Mental Health Association, Building Better Boundaries.
The ACFP is pleased to again present this especially tailored program for family physicians.
First presented at the 2023 Family Medicine Summit, the session was very well received and highly impactful for the everyday practice. |
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AVA EMR now conformed for CII/CPAR
Good news if your clinic uses the AVA EMR because you can now participate in Community Information Integration & Central Patient Attachment Registry. Physicians using AVA will now be eligible for the CII/CPAR Acceleration Grant payments.
Your PCN and the Accelerating Change Transformation Team is ready to help enrol in CII/CPAR. Contact us now!
ACTT Training available online
All current offerings from the Accelerating Change Transformation Team (ACTT) are available online through the Learn@AMA platform. There is training available for different needs and roles with more curriculums continuing to be added. We encourage you to take a look at what’s available and register for anything that fits your needs.
Get more information about ACTT training by visiting the website.
Register for AHS webinar – Connect Care: A Primary Care Primer
Connect Care is the clinical information system being launched across AHS sites. Currently, non-AHS primary care providers can’t access Connect Care directly without AHS privileges, but it does have an impact on primary care. If you’re in the South Zone, or areas of the North Zone where the next Connect Care launch plays a big role, this webinar will be particularly helpful. Join one of the Oct. 11 webinars to find out more about:
- How Connect Care keeps primary care providers informed about their patients’ hospital visits
- Why it’s important for community clinics to use Connect Care IDs on requisitions
- What’s being done to address Connect Care challenges
Choose from one of two sessions:
More information and registration for the 9:00 a.m. session on Oct. 11.
More information and registration for the 4:00 p.m. session on Oct. 11.
Alberta’s Pathway Hub now live
Alberta’s Pathway Hub, also known as The Hub, is transforming healthcare, one pathway at a time. As the provincial central location for trusted, evidence-informed clinical, patient and referral pathways, The Hub is available for all referring providers to access pathways and optimize their practice. Co-designed with patients, primary and specialty care, The Hub houses standardized information on management, diagnosis and referral of patients for specific specialties. Go to www.albertapathways.ca to learn more. Contact albertapathways@ahs.ca for any questions or to provide feedback.
New Alberta resources for Advance Care Planning and Palliative Care
The Covenant Health Palliative Institute is launching two new resources to support Albertans with advance care planning and palliative care. My Wishes Alberta: Planning for My Care is a fillable workbook adapted from Canadian Virtual Hospice’s Coming Full Circle booklet that helps people identify what’s important to them in their life, health, and personal care. It guides people through the “think” step of advance care planning, prompts them to start conversations with their health care providers and the people who matter most to them, and leads them to additional advance care planning resources.
Understanding Palliative Care is an interactive multimedia e-module to improve public understanding of palliative care and help people appreciate the benefits of this sometimes poorly understood area of health care. The module features the voices of three Albertans who have personally experienced palliative care. They explain how it provides physical, emotional, social, and spiritual support and what they think everyone should know about palliative care.
Find these tools and more on the website CompassionateAlberta.ca. You are invited to use these resources and share them widely!
Are you interested in shared care planning with complex patients?
One:carepath is a provincial research study that takes a proactive and co-managed approach to care planning with patients who have advanced/decompensated/non-curative COPD, heart failure, cirrhosis, kidney disease, and stage 3 or 4 solid organ cancers. The focus is on integrating supportive care in the Patient’s Medical Home.
Learn more about participating in the study!
More information about the Shared Care Plan Pilot.
More information about One:carepath.
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