Doctors Nicholas Petropolis and Joelle Bradley of the Fraser Northwest Division of Family Practice have been awarded Above and Beyond Awards by the Fraser Health Authority for their work enhancing primary care in BC.
Dr Petropolis is the recipient of the Best Collaboration Award, which recognizes collaborators form partnerships across disciplines to spark fresh insights that lead to transformational health care. Dr Joelle Bradley was honoured with a Fraser Health Hero Award for her work improving her patients’ quality of life by helping them focus on what will be truly important to them at the end of their lives.
Dr Petropolis is a practicing family physician who works to ensure elderly and home-bound patients can see a doctor when they need one. Dr Petropolis has collaborated with colleagues and residential care providers to launch the Frail Elderly Nurse Practitioner Program, which he still maintains. Dr Petropolis also leads the Divisions residential care initiative, as a part of FPSC’s Residential Care Initiative.
Dr Bradley is a hospitalist at Royal Columbian Hospital has been instrumental in promoting Advance Care Planning in Fraser Health. She’s laid the foundation for a culture change, engaging community and hospital-based physicians, organizing conferences and research. And she’s built bridges with community organizations such as the BC Hospice and Palliative Care Association. Among her efforts, Dr. Bradley helped launch a program called Three Generations in Conversation about Advance Care Planning. It encourages discussion of end-of-life planning between seniors, adult children and grandchildren. Surveys showed the initiative encouraged 82 per cent of physicians involved to talk about advance care planning with their patients.
To read more about how Drs Petropolis and Bradley are improving primary care in BC, click here.