Chilliwack: Working Together to Enhance Residential Care

When a patient in residential care needs medical attention, facility staff need to connect with a physician as quickly as possible which often proved difficult. Staff in Chilliwack residential care facilities had identified this as a significant problem, so when the Chilliwack Division of Family Practice formed in 2010, solving this issue was one of their key priorities. With the residential care initiative, Chilliwack’s family doctors were able to focus on creating a solution that was specifically designed to meet the needs of patients in their community.
 
“As a medical director of a care facility, I saw the impacts of the uncoordinated, reactive care system we had in place,” says Dr Ralph Jones, Lead Physician on the Board of the Chilliwack Division of Family Practice and the Division’s first Residential Care Coordinator. “There was an appetite for improvement from everyone involved but the multiple demands on physicians’ time can be all-consuming. The FPSC’s support gave us the resources to drive change.”

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